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Alert

Public television director sentenced to one month in prison for defamation

(RSF/IFEX) - In a letter to the president of the Superior Council of the Magistracy, Alpha Oumar Konaré, RSF protested the sentencing of Sidiki Konaté, director-general of the Malian Radio-television Bureau (Office de radio-télévision du Mali, ORTM), to one month in prison for defamation. The organisation recalled that in a document published in January 2000, Abid Hussain, the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, stated that for violations such as "defamatory writings", "insults" or "dishonouring the head of state", prison terms are both reprehensible and disproportionate to the harm suffered by the victim.




According to information collected by RSF, the sentence was delivered on 16 May 2001, following a lawsuit filed by the Autonomous Union of the Magistracy (Syndicat autonome de la magistrature) against the mayor of Bamako, Ibrahima N'Diaye, and the ORTM. In the course of a televised programme that was broadcast on 26 March, N'Diaye reportedly stated that Malian magistrates were corrupt. According to the Malian press law, the ORTM is punishable for having broadcast the mayor's remarks. The mayor is considered an accomplice. The ORTM and Bamako's mayor were fined 1,000,000 and 3,000,000 CFA francs (US$1,345 and 4,037; 1,524 and 4,573 euros), respectively. Malian press associations and organisations protested the verdict's "prejudicial nature."