Two journalists in Togo who are currently in hiding were sentenced on Wednesday to three years in prison for insulting public authorities, their lawyer said. The small West African state, ruled since 2005 by President Faure Gnassingbé, is often accused by rights groups of cracking down on opposition figures and the media.
Ferdinand Ayite and Kokou Kouwonou, also known as Isidore Kouwonou, were the director and editor, respectively, of the biweekly publication *l’Alternative*. They were charged in December 2021 with public contempt of authority and propagating falsehoods on social media after complaints by Justice Minister Pius Kokouvi Agbetomey and Commerce Minister Kodjo Adedze over a YouTube broadcast.
On Wednesday, a court in Lomé sentenced Ayite and Kouwonou to three years in prison and imposed a fine of three million CFA francs (about $4,900) on each, according to their lawyer Elom Kpade. He added that an international arrest warrant had been issued against them and that he would consult his clients about a possible appeal. Ayite had been briefly jailed alongside another journalist in December 2021; both he and Kouwonou remain in hiding.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S. organization that promotes press freedom, denounced the case. “Togolese authorities should immediately cease their legal harassment of journalists Ferdinand Ayite and Isidore Kouwonou and allow them to work freely,” said Angela Quintal, the CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “Journalistic commentary on issues of public interest should never be criminalized, and the summonses issued to these journalists should be scrapped at once.”
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