He was prosecuted because he reported on social media some of the statements that the Cotonou prosecutor-general made during a workshop organized by the French media development agency CFI. Anyone can now verify from the audio recording and transcript that the imprisoned journalist reported the statements accurately. This is the first time that a journalist in an ECOWAS member country has been imprisoned for using social media to correctly report comments made in public. His imprisonment does no credit to Benin, one of Africa’s most stable democracies, one that courageously decriminalized press offences, nor to the current government, although it spearheaded the decriminalization of press offences and, during the UN General Assembly, supported the Information and Democracy Initiative launched by RSF in November 2018. President Talon’s government has a duty to honour the decision by Benin’s parliament in 2015 to decriminalize press offences.

Source: Front Page Africa March 12, 2020 22:30 UTC