Journalist in Mali Sentenced to a Year in Prison

A Malian journalist has been sentenced to one year in prison for criticizing the use of the country’s cybercrime legislation to silence another journalist. Chahana Takiou, editor of the biweekly 22 Septembre, was convicted by the national cybercrime court in Bamako, the capital of Mali, on August 3.

Takiou’s arrest on June 8 came after he publicly criticized the authorities for prosecuting fellow journalist Youssouf Sissoko under the cybercrime law. Sissoko was sentenced to two years in prison in June for publishing an article critical of the military ruler of neighboring Niger.

Prosecutors charged Takiou with “undermining the credibility of the state through the judicial institution” and placed him in pretrial detention. Despite his lawyers’ requests for provisional release on medical grounds due to his diabetes and cardiovascular disease, the prosecutor rejected the request.

The arrest of Takiou is not an isolated incident. Another journalist, Abdramane Keïta, director of the newspaper Le Témoin, was arrested on June 9 after making comments on a television program about the control of the northern city of Kidal by the Al-Qaeda-linked armed group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen. Keïta is scheduled to stand trial on August 17, charged with “offense of a regionalist nature undermining national unity and the credibility of the state”.

According to Ilaria Allegrozzi, Senior Sahel Researcher, Takiou’s prosecution is part of a broader pattern in Mali of using fabricated or politically motivated criminal charges to silence journalists, activists, opposition figures, and human rights defenders. Allegrozzi stated that “no one should face prison for peacefully expressing an opinion” and called for the immediate release of Takiou and Keïta, as well as the quashing of Takiou’s conviction and the dropping of all charges stemming solely from the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression.

The conviction of Takiou marks the latest escalation in the military junta’s widening assault on freedom of expression in Mali. Since seizing power in 2020, the authorities have banned media outlets, dissolved civil society organizations, abolished multiparty politics, and targeted dissidents through arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances.

Article and image source: allafrica.com