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CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

[Update on Rapid Action: 2/6/08]
 
PEN welcomes the release of Faustin Bambou, editor of the weekly Les Collines de l‘Oubangui, who was sentenced to six months in prison on defamation charges after an unfair trial in January 2008. However, PEN urges the authorities to quash Bambou’s conviction and ensure that journalists are not imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
 
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
After spending six weeks in prison, Bambou was released following a pardon by President François Bozizé on February 23, 2008. The presidential decree granted the editor "a complete remission of sentence."
 
Faustin Bambou was arrested on January 11, 2008, and taken to Ngaragba prison in the capital, Bangui. On January 28, he was sentenced by the High Court to six months’ imprisonment and a fine on charges of libel, insult, and incitement to revolt related to an article alleging government corruption published in the December 21, 2007, issue of Les Collines de l‘Oubangui. Bambou’s defense had argued that the editor should not have been charged under ordinary criminal law but under the 2004 press law, which protects journalists from being imprisoned for their work; this petition was rejected.