{"id":460278,"date":"2011-07-13T13:49:36","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T13:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/07\/13\/local-journalists-released-fined\/"},"modified":"2011-07-13T13:49:36","modified_gmt":"2011-07-13T13:49:36","slug":"local-journalists-released-fined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/13\/local-journalists-released-fined\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Journalists Released, Fined"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"46.301369863\">\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cpj.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Committee to Protect Journalists<\/a> (New\u00a0York)<\/p>\n<p>12 July 2011<\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p>press release<\/p>\n<p>Two Central African Republic journalists were fined and released from custody Monday after being jailed for weeks in connection with their coverage of public protests by retired military officers who say the government failed to direct European Union funds to them as intended, according to news reports and local journalists.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Jules Gavo convicted Faustin Bambou, editor of the weekly Les Collines de l\u2019Oubangui, and Cyrus Emmanuel Sandy, editor of the daily M\u00e9dias, on charges of defamation under the 2005 press law. He fined them 300,000 CFA francs (US$635) apiece. The journalists told CPJ they intend to appeal.<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution had sought three-year prison terms and fines of 1 million CFA francs on the original charges of \u201cinciting hatred\u201d and \u201cendangering the security of the state,\u201d according to news reports. The case was based on a complaint by Defense Minister Jean Francis Boziz\u00e9, a son of President Francois Boziz\u00e9, over coverage of ongoing public protests by hundreds of retired officers of the military and military police. The officers claim they have not received any of 5.15 million euros (US$7.2 million) in retirement\u00a0 and investment funds earmarked for them in a 2009 agreement between the former EU ambassador to the Central African Republic, Jean-Claude Esmieu, and Defense Minister Boziz\u00e9. The European Union is the Central African Republic\u2019s main financial backer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe welcome the release of our colleagues Faustin Bambou and Cyrus Emmanuel Sandy who were jailed on outrageous charges of inciting hatred and endangering state security for reporting the grievances of retired members of the security forces,\u201d said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. \u201cWe call on the appeals court to overturn their convictions on charges of defamation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bambou, who was jailed for 43 days in 2008 over a story alleging public corruption, was arrested on May 27 over four stories he published beginning in February over the retired security forces\u2019 grievances, he told CPJ. Sandy was picked up on June 20 over two stories on the protests in April and May, he told CPJ.<\/p>\n<p>Both the United Nations and the European Union have expressed concerns about the Central African Republic\u2019s democratization process. More than 60 percent of the population subsists on less than $1.26 daily, according to U.N. data, despite abundant wealth in natural resources, including uranium, timber, and diamonds.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<fieldset>\n<legend align=\"center\"><strong>More News on allAfrica.com<\/strong><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n<p>AllAfrica &#8211; All the Time<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Read the article:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/201107131057.html\" title=\"Local Journalists Released, Fined\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Local Journalists Released, Fined<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Committee to Protect Journalists (New\u00a0York) 12 July 2011 press release Two Central African Republic journalists were fined and released from custody Monday after being jailed for weeks in connection with their coverage of public protests by retired military officers who say the government failed to direct European Union funds to them as intended, according to news reports and local journalists. Judge Jules Gavo convicted Faustin Bambou, editor of the weekly Les Collines de l\u2019Oubangui, and Cyrus Emmanuel Sandy, editor of the daily M\u00e9dias, on charges of defamation under the 2005 press law. He fined them 300,000 CFA francs (US$635) apiece. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-460278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Local Journalists Released, Fined - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/13\/local-journalists-released-fined\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Local Journalists Released, Fined - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Committee to Protect Journalists (New\u00a0York) 12 July 2011 press release Two Central African Republic journalists were fined and released from custody Monday after being jailed for weeks in connection with their coverage of public protests by retired military officers who say the government failed to direct European Union funds to them as intended, according to news reports and local journalists. Judge Jules Gavo convicted Faustin Bambou, editor of the weekly Les Collines de l\u2019Oubangui, and Cyrus Emmanuel Sandy, editor of the daily M\u00e9dias, on charges of defamation under the 2005 press law. He fined them 300,000 CFA francs (US$635) apiece.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/13\/local-journalists-released-fined\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/13\/local-journalists-released-fined\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Local Journalists Released, Fined\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-13T13:49:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/13\/local-journalists-released-fined\/\"},\"wordCount\":404,\"commentCount\":0,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/13\/local-journalists-released-fined\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/13\/local-journalists-released-fined\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/13\/local-journalists-released-fined\/\",\"name\":\"Local Journalists Released, Fined - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-13T13:49:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/13\/local-journalists-released-fined\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Local Journalists Released, Fined - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/07\/13\/local-journalists-released-fined\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Local Journalists Released, Fined - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Committee to Protect Journalists (New\u00a0York) 12 July 2011 press release Two Central African Republic journalists were fined and released from custody Monday after being jailed for weeks in connection with their coverage of public protests by retired military officers who say the government failed to direct European Union funds to them as intended, according to news reports and local journalists. Judge Jules Gavo convicted Faustin Bambou, editor of the weekly Les Collines de l\u2019Oubangui, and Cyrus Emmanuel Sandy, editor of the daily M\u00e9dias, on charges of defamation under the 2005 press law. 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