Journalist facing two-year jail sentence for "insulting" President Gbagbo
| Publisher | Reporters Without Borders |
| Publication Date | 25 March 2009 |
| Cite as | Reporters Without Borders, Journalist facing two-year jail sentence for "insulting" President Gbagbo, 25 March 2009, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/49cb32b5c.html [accessed 30 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Reporters Without Borders calls for the immediate release of journalist Nanankoua Gnamanteh, who has been held in Abidjan central prison since 19 March at the behest of the state prosecutor. When he appeared in court yesterday on a charge of insulting the president, the prosecutor requested a two-year prison sentence. A verdict is due on 31 March.
"Do we have to remind the authorities that press offences have been decriminalised in Côte d'Ivoire?" Reporters Without Borders said. "This journalist's detention is therefore both incomprehensible and illegal. Regardless of what he wrote, Gnamanteh should not be in jail. If an offence was committed, it should be redressed by means that are most just and effective than imprisonment."
Opinion section editor and ombudsman at Le Réveil, a company that publishes the daily Le Nouveau Réveil and the weekly Le Repère, Gnamanteh was brought before an Abidjan court at midday yesterday on a charge of insulting President Laurent Gbagbo in an article that appeared in Le Repère on 6 March under the headline "Ali Baba and his 40 thieves" together with a photo of the president and several of his close associates.
The article referred to Gbagbo's period as president as "nine years of political fraud (...) outright theft, embezzlement and kleptomania at the summit of the state."
The prosecutor also asked the court to suspend Le Repère for eight months and to fine its publisher, Eddy Péhé, 10 million CFA francs (15,200 euros). Péhé was summoned for questioning on 19 March but was released the same day.
A former philosophy professor, Gnamanteh has been working for Le Réveil since 2005.
