H. E. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
Office of the President
State House
Freetown
Sierra Leone
Fax: +232 22 225 615
Vienna, 8 October 2004
Your Excellency,
The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, leading journalists and media executives in over 120 countries, strongly condemns the imprisonment of Paul Kamara, founder and editor of the independent newspaper, For Di People.
In a ruling on 5 October 2004, Justice A.B. Rashid found Kamara guilty of two counts of seditious libel against Your Excellency. He sentenced Kamara to two years imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently, and recommended a six-month ban on the publication of For Di People. Sierra Leone’s Independent Media Commission is expected to rule on the recommendation next week.
The charges stem from an October 2003 article Kamara wrote, titled “Kabbah A True Convict”, which stated that Your Excellency was found “guilty” by a 1967 Commission of Inquiry into alleged fraud in the Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Board.
Charges of libel were brought against Brima Sesay, chief printer of the John Love Printing Press, which prints For Di People, who was found guilty of printing seditious libel and sentenced to six months in jail or a fine of Le 10,000 (approx US$ 4). Sesay opted to pay the fine and was not imprisoned. Two other staff members of the printing press were acquitted.
This is the second time that Kamara has been imprisoned for carrying out his journalistic profession. He served a six-month prison sentence after being convicted of criminal libel in November 2002, for allegedly defaming a local judge.
With regard to this latest sentencing, IPI is deeply concerned that Kamara’s right to a fair trial was compromised. There is clear evidence that the presiding judge, Justice Rashid, was heavily biased against Kamara. According to information provided to IPI, he is known to have said before the verdict that he would “teach Kamara a lesson by sending him to jail.”
Justice Rashid also expressed open hostility towards Kamara’s lawyer, J.O.D. Cole, by berating him in court, and refusing to subpoena a witness whom Mr. Cole said was crucial to the defence of his case.
Justice Rashid also demonstrated his commitment to see Kamara imprisoned by denying him the option to pay a fine, instead of serving a prison term, an alternative which exists in the 1965 Public Order Act, Section 33 (1), under which Kamara was charged.
Prison terms are never justified for dissemination of news and information or for expressions of opinion, no matter how unsettling or offensive they may seem to those involved. The continued threat of criminal penalties will have a chilling effect on press freedom in Sierra Leone by encouraging journalists to censor themselves.
IPI would like to remind Your Excellency that newspapers have a fundamental right to report on legitimate matters of public interest and any attempt to prevent the media from doing so is a disruption of the free flow of news and information. Moreover, public officials need to be afforded less, not more, protection from defamation than ordinary citizens, if there is to be free and vigorous public debate, which is the hallmark of a democratic society.
The sentence handed down to Kamara is a gross violation of everyone’s right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers,” as contained in Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We therefore urge Your Excellency to do everything in your power to ensure that Kamara is released immediately and unconditionally, to oppose further attempts at censoring the press through the banning of For Di People, and to encourage a media environment in Sierra Leone that allows journalists to exercise their profession free of intimidation and harassment.
We thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Johann P. Fritz
Director
