(Bloomberg) -- A court in Chad handed a three-year prison sentence to the editor of a magazine following a defamation complaint, marking the heaviest sentence for a journalist since one-party rule ended in 1990.
Inou Martin Doulguet was found guilty of associating with cybercriminals and ordered to pay 10 million CFA francs ($16,665) in damages by a court in the capital, N'Djamena.
Doulguet had assumed the identity of former Health Minister Toupota Boguena on social media to publish threats and insults, Boguena's lawyer, Alain Kagonbe, said by phone. The Committee to Protect Journalists on its website called the sentence “outrageous” and urged authorities to repeal legislation that criminalizes acts of journalism.
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel N'doh Nadjitan in N'Djamena at nnadjitan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Pauline Bax, Helen Nyambura
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