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Legal Action
May 14
Babacar Toure, Sud Communication, LEGAL ACTION
Abdoulaye Ndiaga Sylla, Sud Communication, Sud Quotidien, LEGAL ACTION
Sidy Gaye, Sud Quotidien, LEGAL ACTION
Bocar Niang, Sud Quotidien, LEGAL ACTION
Mame Oll Faye, Sud Quotidien, LEGAL ACTION
Ibrahim Sarr, Sud Quotidien, LEGAL ACTION
Toure, chairperson and president of Sud Communication, a private Senegalese media company which owns the independent newspaper Sud Quotidien and radio station Sud FM; Sylla, first vice president of Sud Communication and director of Sud Quotidien; Gaye, editor in chief of Sud Quotidien; and Niang, Faye, and Sarr, reporters for the newspaper, went to trial for public defamation in a suit brought by the Mimran Group, a foreign-owned sugar producer. An article in the Oct. 13, 1995, edition of Sud Quotidien claimed that Mimran used fraudulent practices in its importation of sugar from Brazil. On June 27, Sud Communication and Sud Quotidien were found liable and were ordered to pay Mimran 500 million CFA (US$1 million). Journalists Sylla, Gaye, Niang, Faye, and Sarr were convicted of libel, and each was sentenced to one month in prison. So far, they have not been arrested. Toure was acquitted. CPJ protested the fine and jail sentences in a letter to Senegalese President Abdou Diouf.
For more information contact africaweb@cpj.org