Senegal : Court jails two journalists, publisher exonerated

A magistrate court in Dakar, capital of Senegal on June 16, 2009 sentenced two journalists of the Week-End, a privately-owned weekly magazine, to three months imprisonment for defaming Mme Aida Mbodji, second deputy speaker of the country’s national assembly.

Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MFWA) correspondent reported the two journalists, Papa Samba Diarra, managing editor, and Mame Sèye Diop, a reporter were also fined ten million francs (approx. US$ 21, 000) each.

The court, however, acquitted and discharged Mamdiambal Diagne, general adminstrator of Groupe Avenir Communication, publishers of the Week-End, who was jointly sued.

The correspondent said the sentence would not be enforced until the final determination of an appeal filed by the journalists’s counsel.
Meanwhile, the plaintiff has also expressed her intention to appeal if the court does not reconsider its decision to acquit Mamdiambal Diagne. During the proceedings, the prosecutor requested a three-year jailed term and an outrageous fine of five hundred million francs (1,057, 000 US$) for each of the accused persons.

Mme Mbodji brought the legal action following the Week-End’s edition of 8 to 14 August 2008 that accused her of being a dishonest politician.

The article written by Sèye Diop said Mme Mbodji, a former radical socialist activist in the erstwhile administration of ex-President Abdou Diouf, defected to the camp of the ruling party after the country’s political changeover in the year 2000.

The article headlined: “the underhand dealings of Aida Mbodji” chronicled the personal background of the deputy speaker without crosschecking with her.

Prof. Kwame Karikari
Executive Director
MFWA
Accra
Tel: 233 21 24 24 70
Fax : 233 21 221084
Website : www.mediafound.org
Email: [email][email protected]