The following letter was sent to the President of Mali by WAN on 4 July:

His Excellency Amadou Toumani Touré
President of Republic of Mali

4 July 2007

Your Excellency,

Further to our letters of 20 and 21 June, we are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our serious concern at the jailing of a journalist and a teacher and the handing down of suspended prison sentences to four more journalists for insulting the president.

According to reports, on 26 June teacher Bassirou Kassim Minta was given a two-month sentence for giving his students an essay assignment about an imaginary president’s mistress. Seydina Oumar Diarra, a journalist from the independent daily Info-Matin, was sentenced to 13 days in jail - the length of time he had already spent in pre-trial detention - for having reported on the essay assignment. Four other journalists who had published stories on the case were given suspended sentences at the trial that was held behind closed doors in contravention of all acceptable judicial practices. Info-Matin director Sambi Toure was given an eight-month suspended sentence, while the editorial directors of three other newspapers that covered the case - Hameye Cissé of Scorpion, Alexis Kalambry of Les Echos and Birama Fall of Le Républicain - were each given four-month suspended jail sentences.

We respectfully remind you that sentencing journalists to jail and to suspended prison terms is disproportionate to any “crime” that may have been committed and is highly detrimental to free speech and a free press. So-called “insult laws” contradict all international standards and conventions on freedom of information and human rights, and directly contradict the fundamental principles of the Declaration of Table Mountain, adopted on 3 June 2007 by our organisations in Cape Town, South Africa, the promotion and respect of which we are working towards. The Declaration is an earnest appeal to all Africans to recognise that the political and economic progress they seek flourishes in a climate of freedom and where the press is free and independent of governmental, political or economic control.

We respectfully call on you to do everything possible to ensure that Mr Minta is immediately released from prison and that the suspended sentences handed down to Mr Cissé, Mr Touré, Mr Kalambry and Mr Fall are overturned. We call on you to ensure that insult laws are abolished and that in future your country fully respects international standards of freedom of expression.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.