MADAGASCAR

APRIL 19
Posted: May 31, 2005

Rolland Rasoamaharo, La Gazette de la Grande IleJames Ramarosaona, La Gazette de la Grande Ile

LEGAL ACTION

Rasoamaharo, publication director of the private, daily La Gazette de la Grande Ile, and editor Ramarosaona, were each sentenced on April 19 to one month in jail for criminal defamation in connection with an article published in January 2004. The article alleged that employees of a state-owned real estate agency, SEIMAD, had embezzled money.

Journalists working for the paper have been repeatedly targeted with criminal defamation suits. Rasoamaharo had been given at least three other prison sentences in connection with his work in recent months. He and Ramarosaona were free pending the newspaper’s appeals.