Journalist gets suspended prison sentence for libel

A court in the Central African Republic (CAR) has handed down a one-year suspended prison sentence and a US $1,000 fine to a journalist of a privately owned newspaper for "publicly insulting" an official of the country's electricity company. However, state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Monday that the Bangui Court of First Instance acquitted Maka Gbossokotto, the publisher of the Le Citoyen daily newspaper, of slander, saying there was no evidence to prove the charge. However, the court directed Gbossokotto to pay the plaintiff, Jean-Serge Wanfio, one franc of the local CFA currency. Gbossokotto was arrested on 8 July 2004 after Wanfio, a relative of CAR leader Francois Bozize, filed a complaint before the court. The radio quoted Trinité Bango-Sangafio, who presided over the trial, as saying Gbossokotto's sentence was in accordance with Article 142 of the CAR penal code, which states that "public insult" is a punishable offence. Court prosecutor Firmin Feindiro had sought a one-year prison sentence for Gbossokotto. The case against Gbossokotto arose from an articled published in the Le Citoyen criticising Wanfio's management of the country's electricity firm, ENERCA, and alleged misappropriation in the state utility. ENERCA's board of directors dismissed Wanfio in July after the publication of the newspaper article. Reacting to the court's decision, Gossokotto told IRIN on Monday that he was disappointed. "It's a shame for justice in the CAR," he added. Gbossotto becomes the second journalist to be sentenced by the Bangui Court of First Instance after Jude Zosse, who was sentenced to six months imprisonment in March for slandering Bozize. Zosse had described Bozize as the "state tax collector" in a newspaper article.