Two Togolese journalists, Loic Lawson and Anani Sossou, were granted bail on Friday after their arrest for alleged “defamatory” statements against a minister caused widespread criticism in the West African nation, as per one of their newspaper editors.
The journalists were imprisoned in Lome last month after asserting on social media that approximately $670,000 had been stolen from Minister Kodjo Adedze’s residence.
Minister Adedze, responsible for urban planning, housing, and land reform, had reported a burglary to the police without disclosing the stolen amount, leading to a complaint against the journalists.
Although the journalists retracted their statement on Facebook, acknowledging an overestimation in the total amount, they were detained for two days and subsequently sent to prison on November 15 on charges of “defamation and attack on the honour of the minister and incitement to revolt”.
Loic Lawson, the publishing director of the newspaper Flambeau des Democrates, and Anani Sossou, an independent journalist, were released on bail from prison on Friday morning, as confirmed by Lawson’s paper editor, Magloire Teko Kinvi.
However, they remain “under judicial supervision.”
Lawson shared a picture on social media showing both journalists outside prison, captioned “light-hearted and free from resentment.”
The incarceration of these journalists drew condemnation from Togolese opposition parties, civil society organizations, the Togolese Press Authority, and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), highlighting concerns about potential government attempts to sidestep press laws to target and detain journalists.
In Togo, social media platforms fall outside the purview of the press and communication code enacted this year. Offenses related to social media are subject to prosecution under the penal code.
