Bangui revises media laws

Central African Republic (CAR) Communications Minister Parfait Mbay has received a revised bill of law on the freedom of press, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Thursday. The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in the CAR, Lamine Cisse, handed over the bill, which was drafted by experts in the Ministry of Communications with financial and logistic support from the UN Peace-building Support Office in the CAR (BONUCA), the head of BONUCA's information section, Aissatou Toure, told IRIN. A national reconciliation forum held in September-October 2003 recommended the revision of the media laws and the decriminalisation of these laws. "The current provisions of the Penal Code regarding violations of laws of press carry a sentence of six months to five years imprisonment for defamation and slandering the head of state," Justice Arsene Sende, chairman of the Civil and Commercial Chamber of the Bangui Court of Appeal, told IRIN on Thursday. He said that under the revised bill, no journalist should be imprisoned for defaming or slandering a third party in a published story. He added that the right of reply or compensation was accorded to the plaintiff. However, he said, "There is exception concerning incitement to hatred or violence through publication in a newspaper or broadcast." He added that that perpetrators of such offences would be imprisoned under current laws. Sende said that during workshops leading to the revision of the media laws, the CAR Journalists Association said they did not want any one of them to set up another Radio de Mille Collines in CAR. This was in reference to a radio station that was operational in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, which has been accused of fanning ethnic hatred and inciting Hutus to kill Tutsis.