RSF protests against jailing of journalists

Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF - Reporters without Borders) has condemned the sentencing of two journalists from the Chadian weekly, Notre Temps, to six months in prison for an article published in their periodical. The weekly's publisher, Nadjikimo Benoudjita, and its editor-in-chief, Mbainaye Betoubam, were also ordered on Thursday to pay damages worth over US $3,000 and suspended from exercising their profession for eight months by a court in Ndjamena, the Chadian capital. The court ordered the weekly closed for three months. "Nothing justifies this decision," RSF Secretary-General Robert Menard said in a letter to Chadian President Idriss Deby. "Whatever the content of the offending article, imprisoning these two journalists is not acceptable." He added that "imprisonment as a condemnation of the peaceful expression of an opinion constitutes a severe violation of human rights". According to RSF, the two journalists had been sued by Hadjé Billy Douga, director of social affairs at the Ministry for Social Action and Women and mother-in-law of the president, for an article which reported that after losing a quantity of jewels, she had had the presumed thieves tortured. The weekly also reported that one of the men had died as a result of the torture whereas the police said his death had been caused by an incurable illness. The two journalists said at the trial that their information had come from the records of the Ndjamena Appeal Court.