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Togo Journalists Ferdinand Ayité and Joël Egah Detained over Online Broadcast

  • Date of Occurrence
    December 9, 2021
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On December 9, national police officers arrested Ayité, the publication director of the privately owned L’Alternative newspaper, after he responded to a summons to appear at the Research and Investigations Brigade (BIR), according to multiple media reports and Ayité’s Facebook posts. The summons followed a complaint by two Togolese government ministers who are also pastors, Pius Agbetomey and Kodjo Adédzé, about a November 30 online broadcast that featured all three of the journalists, according to the journalists’ lawyer Elom Kpade and those reports. During the broadcast, which is part of a series called “L’Autre Journal” on L’Alternative’s YouTube channel with over 15,000 followers, the journalists discussed the two ministers’ alleged corruption and manipulation of the Togo public.

The next day, on December 10, police summoned Egah, the director of the privately owned Fraternité newspaper, and Kouwonou, the editor in chief of L’Alternative. Egah was then arrested and detained, while Kouwonou was released the same day under judicial supervision, the reports and posts said. Ayité and Egah were accused of “contempt of authorities” and “propagation of falsehoods,” and Kouwonou was accused of complicity in these two crimes, Kpade told CPJ via messaging app.

“There is absolutely no reason for Togolese journalists Ferdinand Ayité and Joël Egah to have been arrested or detained. Authorities should release them immediately and put an end to the legal harassment of Isidore Kouwonou,” said Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s Sub-Saharan Africa Representative, from Nairobi. “Togo’s laws and law enforcement should be used to protect the press and ensure they can work freely, not leveraged in efforts to intimidate or criminalize journalism.”

Anyone found guilty of “contempt against representatives of public authority” may be punished with up to two years in prison and a fine of 1 million West African francs (US$1,722), according to Togo’s penal code. Publication of false news is punishable with up to two years in prison and a fine of 2 million West African francs (US$3,445). “Coaction and complicity” punishments aligned with those of the associated crimes.

Press offenses are “decriminalized” in Togo and therefore Ayité should not have been detained, Kpade told CPJ hours after his arrest. Ferdinand’s summons and arrest took place without any documentation of the complaint, which Kpade described as an abuse of authority in a recording posted on YouTube by local media on December 10. “One cannot be arrested based simply on a phone call,” Kpade said.

“Grievances brought against journalists in the exercise of their profession must be assessed with regard to the provisions of the Press Code and not the Penal Code,” said Isidore Akollor, the president of the Togolese Press Patronage, a local media association, in a December 11 statement that CPJ reviewed and was published by local media.

State prosecutor Mawama Talaka told CPJ via messaging app that he declined to comment on the journalists’ situation because “[a]s a judicial authority, it does not seem appropriate to communicate with the press on an ongoing case.” Text messages sent to Agbetomey and Adédzé from CPJ requesting comment went unanswered.

The Togolese government has suspended L’Alternative twice in less than two years: in February 2021, when Ayité also faced legal harassment, and in April 2020, when the government suspended L’Alternative, Fraternité, and a third newspaper, Liberté. Ayité’s phone number has also appeared on the Pegasus Project list of those allegedly selected for potential spyware surveillance.

Actions Taken

Togo: Provisional Release of Ferdinand Ayité and Joël Egah

Journalists Ferdinand Mensah Ayité and Joël Vignon Egah were released on December 31, 2021 after 22 and 21 days of arbitrary detention respectively. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT) and Tournons La Page recall that they should never have been detained in the first place and call for the dismissal of all charges against them, as well as journalist Isidore Kouwonou and civil society activist Fovi Katakou.

The judicial harassment of human rights defenders and those peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression continues in Togo. Ferdinand Mensah Ayité, editor of the newspaper L’Alternative, a bi-weekly news and investigative publication committed to denouncing corruption and documenting human rights violations in Togo, and Joël Vignon Egah, editor of the newspaper Fraternité, were released from Lomé civil prison and placed under judicial supervision on the evening of December 31, 2021.

On December 9 and 10, 2021 Ferdinand Mensah Ayité and Joël Vignon Egah were arrested and detained for having made critical comments about two Togolese ministers during the programme "L’autre journal" broadcast on YouTube on November 30, 2021. Despite their release, the two journalists are still being prosecuted for "contempt of authority" (Article 490 of the Togolese Code of Criminal Procedure), "defamation" (Article 290 of the Togolese Penal Code) and "inciting hatred of authority" and face up to two years in prison and a fine of 1 million CFA francs (about 1,520 euros).

Isidore Kouwonou, editor-in-chief of L’Alternative and Secretary General of the Union of Independent Journalists of Togo (SYNJIT), has been under judicial supervision since December 10, 2021, because of his participation in the same programme as a moderator. He is being prosecuted on the same charges as Mr Ayité and Mr Egah.

The pro-democracy activist Fovi Katakou, a member of Tournons La Page Togo, was also provisionally released under judicial supervision on December 20, 2021 after nine days of arbitrary detention. He is accused of "apology for crimes and offences" (Article 552 of the Togolese Penal Code) and "incitement to revolt against the authority of the State" (Article 495 of the same Code) in relation to a Facebook post dated December 10, 2021 in which he warned about the problems of insecurity, injustice, and lack of infrastructure in Togo. For this he faces up to five years in prison and a fine of 20 million CFA francs (approximately 30,460 euros).

The Observatory and Tournons La Page recall that Ferdinand Ayité and L’Alternative were already fined for defamation in November 2020 following the publication of an article exposing a case of massive embezzlement in the Togolese oil sector, and that in early 2021, the newspaper was suspended for four months following accusations of publishing false news. Furthermore, Ferdinand Ayité was named as among those under surveillance via Pegasus spyware.

Details
  • Date of Occurrence
    2021-12-09
  • Perpetrator
    Togolese authorities
  • Source
    https://cpj.org/2021/12/togo-journalists-ferdinand-ayite-and-joel-egah-detained-over-online-broadcast/
Region
  • Togo
Rights & Freedom Violated
  • Press Freedom
Gender of Victim(s)
  • Male
Mode of Attacks
  • Forced Disappearances, Unlawful Arrests and Detention
  • Trials, Prosecution and Persecutions
  • Comments are closed.
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