Posts Tagged ‘criminal libel’
June 20th, 2012
An
Egyptian journalist has been
fined for defamation after calling for a changes to the editorial staff of Egypt’s state-run newspapers. Hanan Youssef, deputy editor-in-chief of the local newspaper Al-Messa, was fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds (US$1,654) for defaming the paper’s former editor Khaled Imam. Youssef claimed that many Egyptian news outlets included staff members who maintained links to the ruling military regime, but did not name Imam. The journalist, who has been supportive of the revolution and written critical articles about Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), has said she will appeal the sentence.
January 23rd, 2012
Two
Sengalese journalists have been given suspended prison sentences after been convicted of
criminal libel. Editor Mamadou Biaye and reporter Mamadou Ticko Diatta of private daily newspaper Le Quotidien were given a three month suspended sentence after the publication of an article alleging that Bakary Diémé, deputy mayor of the district of Goudomp, had links to armed separatists of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC). Le Quotidien told the court their information came from military sources, but Diémé rejected the allegations. Diémé was awarded 2 million CFA francs (US$3,500).
December 2nd, 2011
Slander and libel have
been decriminalised by the
Mexican Senate. The senate approved the repeal of Articles 1 and 31 of the Crimes Act, with a
unanimous decision. Mexico have joined
El Salvador as the second Latin American country to decriminalise honour crimes. The decision follows the end of a seven-year defamation trial where the newspaper La Jornada accused magazine Letras Libres of
damaging its reputation. The court determined that freedom of expression supersedes the right to honour.
October 14th, 2011
The editor of a
Colombian monthly newspaper has been handed a 20-month
suspended sentence and a $5,500 fine. Luis Agustín González, who is both founder and editor of
Cundinamarca Democrática, was convicted of criminal libel yesterday, after he published
an article critical of local politician. In a 2008 article, González expressed his dismay that Maria Leonor Serrano had announced she would be a senate candidate in the 2010 elections. The article also referred to allegations of corruption throughout her career, and covered a range of disappearances and assassinations which occurred during her tenure as a town mayor.
September 14th, 2011
Ontario Provincial Police have
charged an activist with two counts of defamatory libel for online comments he made regarding
undercover police officers. Using fake names, Dan Kellar outed two officers who had infiltrated activist networks. Upon learning that one of them was spotted in Toronto, he put out a “community alert’’ on the website of an activist group he was involved with. Police claim the comments were likely to injure the reputation of the officers by exposing them to hatred, contempt or ridicule. Kellar says the charges are an attempt to stifle dissent. He will appear in court in Toronto on 20 September.
July 25th, 2011
Mark Townsend spent nearly two years fighting a bizarre libel case in Dubai. Here he tells of the legal limbo of the gulf city’s labyrinthine legal system
(more…)
June 1st, 2011
A journalist appeared in Kampala Magistrates Court yesterday charged with criminal libel. Timothy Kalyegira, the editor of
Uganda Record, a website which has been critical of the country’s governing National Resistance Movement. Kalyegira was initially questioned over articles which suggested that Somali based militants,
al Shabaab, were connected to the 11 July
bombings in Kampala which killed 76 people. He is being remanded in Luzira Prison until his next trial date on 6 June.
February 4th, 2010
Henry Ochieng, editor of the
Daily Monitor news magazine and
Angelo Izama, a senior reporter were
charged with criminal libel yesterday after a complaint from President Yoweri Museveni about an article that compared him to Ferdinand Marcos, former leader of the Philippines. The journalists have been released on bail, pending the trial on 25 February.
