The bi-weekly Alternative and its director were sentenced on Wednesday, November 4, by the Supreme Court to pay two million each for defamation. The decision arouses indignation in the Togolese press.
as reported from Lomé, Peter Sassou Dogbé
The newspaper published in its publication in early June, embezzlement of almost 500 billion CFA francs in the order of oil to Togo. The CFO of the Price Fluctuation Committee filed a defamation suit.
And the verdict came very quickly in the absence of most lawyers. Each week and its director are sentenced to two million CFA francs each for lack of evidence and for paying two million for moral damages to the complainant. This is the full satisfaction of me Eric Sossah, the plaintiff’s lawyer. “In defamation cases, we can not come to the bar and say ‘I have items, but I can not give them to you, I prefer to keep them for the people.’ By doing so, we are doing populist and demagogic activism, and we are no longer doing journalism. “
This decision is a farce, declares for his part Me Claude Amegah, lawyer for the newspaper Alternative. “Since we started this procedure, the way it was conducted gave the wrong indication of the decision that may have come out of it.”
The Committee on Fluctuations in Petroleum Products is an automatic price adjustment mechanism set up by the government. Since 2011, the mechanism has been headed by a coordinator whose son is the administrative and financial director.
As soon as the article was published in June, the Ministry of Commerce requested a revision of the committee. Excerpts from the report from this review have been making headlines in the press for a few days. These are elements that can help the judge, insists Isidore Sassou, president of the Togolese press chiefs, who does not hide his indignation over this verdict.
The lawyers appealed on Wednesday.
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