Comoros authorities should not oppose the appeal of four journalists convicted for publicizing sexual assault allegations at the country’s public broadcaster, Comoros Radio and Television Office (ORTC), the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

On August 31, four Comorian journalists appealed their August 24 convictions for defamation and insult related to the publicizing of sexual misconduct allegations against unnamed leadership of the state-owned ORTC, according to the journalists, who spoke to CPJ over the phone, and a statement in support of the appeal by the National Union of Journalists in the Comoros, a local trade organization.

The charges and convictions by the criminal court in the capital, Moroni, followed a complaint by Hablani Assoumani, operational director of the ORTC, over “defamatory allegations of sexual touching” made during a January 17 meeting between Comoros President Azali Assoumani and journalists, as well as in subsequent media coverage of the allegations, according to those sources and a copy of the summons for one of the journalists to appear in court, which CPJ reviewed.

The journalists convicted include Andjouza Abouheir, vice president of the journalists’ union, and Toufé Maecha, former director of ORTC, who both made comments related to the allegations during the January 17 meeting; as well as Abdallah Mzembaba, a correspondent for Radio France Internationale, and Oubeidillah Mchangama, a reporter with the privately owned FCBK FM broadcaster, both of whom published reporting about these allegations, the four journalists told CPJ.

A court date for the journalists’ appeal has not been set, according to Saïd Mohamed Saïd Hassane, Mzembaba’s lawyer, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.

“Convicting journalists for asking questions and reporting on sexual assault allegations sends a chilling message that promotes impunity for such abusive behavior. Authorities should not oppose the journalists’ appeal,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in Durban, South Africa. “Journalists have been crucial to exposing sexual misconduct in workplaces around the world. Comoros authorities should focus on investigating such allegations, not seek to deter reporters from holding those in power to account.”

During the January 17 meeting, Abouheir questioned the country’s president about allegations of sexual touching “by at least one man, a superior, on young women,” in return for promises of “promotions,” according to media reports.

Mzembaba told CPJ that after the meeting he reported for RFI on the allegations and the president’s response. That reporting suggested that the person accused is “a director of one of the national television departments.” On June 15, the Moroni court summoned Mzembaba to appear over that coverage, according to the summons that CPJ reviewed.

Mchangama similarly told CPJ he was being prosecuted for reporting the details of the meeting in a January 19 Facebook Live broadcast.

On June 22, the public prosecutor called for one year’s sentence, with a minimum of three months to be served in prison, and a one-year ban on the suspects from exercising their profession, claiming in the indictment that the speech and media coverage of these allegations had “tarnished” the country’s image, according to several reports.

On August 24, the Moroni court sentenced the four journalists to a nine-month suspended sentence and a fine of 150,000 Comorian francs ($US325) each for defamation and insult, according to news reports.

CPJ reached the secretary for ORTC’s general manager Mohamed Abdou Mhadji via messaging app, but he declined to comment. CPJ’s calls to the Comoros Ministry of Justice via the number listed on their Facebook page went unanswered.

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Comorian authorities should drop all legal proceedings against journalist Oubeidillah Mchangama and allow him to report freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On December 14, Comorian authorities arrested Oubeidillah, a reporter with Facebook-based news outlet FCBK FM, and held him at a remand center in Moroni, the capital, until December 17, according to FCBK FM, news reports, a Facebook post by local journalist Faïza Soulé Youssouf, and Oubeidillah, who spoke to CPJ over messaging app.

He was initially detained in relation to a December 11 FCBK FM post about a potential gas shortage, which authorities allege disturbed “public order,” according to those reports.

On December 16, however, a Moroni court judge dropped the arrest warrant for that post and instead prolonged Oubeidillah’s detention in relation to a September 2020 FCBK FM post he wrote about alleged government mismanagement of public funds, which the court said constituted spreading false news, according to Oubeidillah, reports by the privately owned news website La Gazette des Comores, and a Facebook post by Youssouf.

Now free on provisional release, authorities are investigating Oubeidillah in connection to the September FCBK FM report, according to those sources and a September 3 statement by the National Union of Journalists in the Comoros, published when authorities initially opened an investigation into that report.

If convicted of “spreading false news,” a criminal offense under Article 254 of Comoros’ penal code, he could face up to three years in prison and a fine of 750,000 Comorian francs ($1,853).

Oubeidillah told CPJ today that his next court date had not been scheduled.

“Authorities in Comoros should immediately halt the legal harassment of journalist Oubeidillah Mchangama and ensure he and FCBK FM can report about issues of public interest without fear of arrest or detention,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in Durban, South Africa. “Oubeidillah Mchangama’s arrest and days behind bars fits a continent-wide trend of authorities criminalizing journalism published online and the use of false news allegations against the press.”

On December 12, gendarmerie officers summoned Oubeidillah and interrogated him for about two hours about the December 11 FCBK FM post, after which he was released but instructed to return on December 14, when they detained him, according to Oubeidillah, La Gazette des Comores, and two posts about his arrest and release by FCBK FM.

On December 15, the investigating magistrate told Oubeidillah that the judicial control related to the September 2020 case had been “revoked,” meaning that he was being held at the judge’s discretion while other allegations were investigated, according to FCBK FM, Oubeidillah, and Oubeidillah’s lawyer, Fahmi Said Ibrahim, who spoke to CPJ over the phone.

Included in the September 2020 judicial control order, a copy of which CPJ reviewed, are instructions for Oubeidillah not to make declarations to the media or publish messages on social media. Said Ibrahim told CPJ that he believed the restrictions on Oubeidillah’s work were unconstitutional.

The order also referenced Sections 44 and 45 of the penal code, which pertain to complicity in criminal offenses, and said “there was not sufficient proof against the accused.”

On December 15, Faïza posted a video on Facebook of a protest outside the courthouse calling for Oubeidillah’s release.

A similar protest took place on December 5, 2019, following Oubeidillah’s previous arrest for reporting on a demonstration by women in the capital, according to a Facebook post by Toufeyli Maecha, the editor of La Gazette des Comores, and CPJ reporting from the time. Oubeidillah was also arrested in February 2019 alongside fellow FCBK FM reporter Abdallah Abdou Hassane, as CPJ documented at the time.

CPJ sent a request for comment via messaging app and text message to the public prosecutor associated with Oubeidillah’s case, but did not receive any responses.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the government of Comoros to reinstate two senior journalists – news director Binti Mhadjou and editor in chief Moinadjoumoi Papa Ali – who have been suspended from this Indian Ocean archipelago’s public radio and TV broadcaster, ORTC, over their allegedly biased coverage of a strike.

Mhadjou and Papa Ali, who had only recently been hired to fill these posts, learned of their suspensions from a fellow journalist’s Facebook post on 30 January. The decision was taken by the information minister – who ran the ORTC in the past – after attending a cabinet meeting.

Mhadjou told RSF that the government thought that the ORTC had given “too much time to the strikers” – the merchants who have been protesting against recent hikes in custom duties and a lack of transparency in the way duties are charged. No grounds or explanation for their suspension is given in the official note, which RSF has seen. Two terse letters, simply stating that their suspensions were to take immediate effect, were sent to the ORTC’s director-general, who was abroad at the time. No notification of the suspension was sent to either of the two journalists, who were given no chance to defend themselves.

Mhadjou and Papa Ali were appointed to these key positions after the ORTC decided to reflect all viewpoints and provide more balanced news coverage during the current parliamentary elections. Two weeks before their suspension, the ORTC interviewed the opposition’s spokesman and another member of the opposition, Ngazidja island’s former governor. This was virtually the first time in months that anyone from the opposition had been interviewed on the ORTC.

“This completely unwarranted sanction testifies to the very close control that the Comorian government still wants to exercise over the public TV broadcaster, which had only just begun providing more independent coverage and a diversity of viewpoints,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa Desk.“ A public service media cannot just be a governmental public relations outlet. We call on the authorities to rescind these suspensions and allow journalists and media outlets to operate in a free and independent manner, especially as parliamentary elections are currently under way in Comoros.”

The Comorian Journalists’ Collective issued a statement condemning “this manifest determination to crush the momentum for opening up the national TV broadcaster to more diverse opinions.”

The authorities have repeatedly targeted journalists and media since the 2018 constitutional referendum that allowed President Azali Assoumani to run successfully for another term in 2019. RSF has registered an unprecedented number of press freedom violations – including cases of intimidation, physical attacks, suspensions of journalists and censorship of newspapers – in the past two years.

Ali Mbaé, a reporter for the newspaper Masiwa Komor, and Oubeidillah Mchangama, a blogger, are still subject to the judicial control measures that a judge imposed on 13 January, two days after they were arrested while on their way to cover an opposition rally. Pending trial on a charge of “disturbing public order,” they are still banned from leaving the country and posting on social networks, and must appear before a judge every week.

Comoros has fallen 12 places in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index since 2017 and is now ranked 56th out of 180 countries.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the authorities in the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros to stop censoring and intimidating journalists amid a continuing political crisis in the wake of the country’s presidential election on 24 March.

In an unprecedented press boycott, Comorian journalists have announced that they will not cover the government’s activities for the next two weeks because of “the many attacks on journalists and media outlets” whereas President Azali Assoumani’s reelection is being challenged by the opposition candidates, who have formed a National Transition Council (CNT).

Masiwa Komor editor Toufé Maecha was detained arbitrarily for several hours when he went to the gendarmerie’s headquarters in the capital, Moroni, on 30 March to seek information. The gendarmes accused him of spying for the opposition and sullying the country’s institution. Maecha told RSF that the gendarmes forced him to undress while they interrogated him, and that they threatened to arrest him again if published anything about the way he had been treated while held.

Besides, five issues of three different newspapers have been censored by the authorities in the past week. The 28 March issue of La Gazette des Comores, whose front page headline said “Opposition 12 proclaim National Transition Council,” was prevented from reaching the newsstands. On the evening of 31 March, the security forces intervened again to prevent La Gazette des Comores and two other dailies, Masiwa Komor and Al Fadjr, from being distributed. They were all carrying reports about Maecha’s mistreatment.

Several newspaper editors were summoned to a meeting with the interior minister on 1 April. “He told us that he would continue this policy for as long as the newspapers continued to jeopardize national security by publishing lies,” one of the editors told RSF.

“What with censoring, arresting and intimidating, the behaviour of the authorities towards journalists is both unacceptable and irresponsible,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “Violating the freedom to inform in a crisis is the best way to amplify the crisis. Journalists are neither responsible for the crisis nor its protagonists. They are just there to do their job to cover events, which is more necessary than ever. Every democratic state has a duty to ensure that they can work freely, not to target them and turn them into public enemies.”

RSF has repeatedly tried reaching the interior minister and the National Press and Broadcasting Council for an explanation, but without success.

Comoros is ranked 49th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index.

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Authorities in the Comoros should immediately release journalists Abdallah Abdou Hassane and Oubeidillah Mchangama, who have been held in pretrial detention on an array of charges for over a month, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

The journalists, who report for the Facebook news page FCBK FM, were arrested in mid-February and are detained in a prison in the Comoros capital, Moroni, while awaiting trial, according to their lawyer, Abdoulbastoi Moudjahid, who spoke with CPJ.

On February 12, the journalists were charged with defamation, disturbing public order, incitement to violence, offence against the head of state, insulting the magistrate, forgery, and use of false materials, according to their lawyer and FCBK FM; they have both pled not guilty.

While in detention, both journalists have been questioned multiple times about their FCBK FM posts, Abdoulbastoi told CPJ. The lawyer did not elaborate on any individual posts that the journalists have been asked about.

According to FCBK FM and Abdoulbastoi, the journalists frequently criticized the government in their posts and Facebook Live broadcasts, including making at least one call for President Azali Assoumani to resign.

The country held its presidential election on March 24 and has not yet released the results, according to media reports; the opposition alleges that the polls were rigged to secure Azali’s reelection.

“That these two journalists have been held in pre-trial detention so long suggests that this case is little more than a pretext to silence critical voices during an election period,” said CPJ’s Sub-Saharan Africa representative, Muthoki Mumo. “Authorities should free Abdallah Abdou Hassane and Oubeidillah Mchangama and drop the charges against them.”

Abdallah was arrested on February 9 at the supreme court in Moroni, where he had gone to report on a court decision that barred several opposition politicians from running in the presidential elections, according to Abdoulbastoi and FCBK FM.

Oubeidillah was arrested on the morning of February 11 at the entrance of the Moroni court where he was investigating Abdallah’s arrest, according to Abdoulbastoi.

CPJ reached out to FCBK FM via its Facebook page and did not receive a response.

Abdoulbastoi appealed the charges against the journalists on February 25 on the grounds that the original order for their detention was unlawful, but the presiding judge dismissed his case as “unfounded,” the lawyer told CPJ.

Protests have been staged in Moroni calling for the journalists’ release, according to news reports by French news agency RFI. The agency reported that the organizers of the protests feared that the journalists might be detained until after the presidential inauguration in May.

CPJ tried to reach Comorian Interior Minister Mohamed Daoudou via multiple calls and text messages but did not receive a response. Emails from CPJ to the ministry of foreign affairs and to the Comorian mission at the United Nations went unanswered.

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Khaleq is currently being held in Abu Dhabi’s Al-Wathba prison, but is due to be transferred to Al-Sadr prison (which is notorious for its mistreatment of detainees) and then to be deported to Comoros under a 2009 agreement between the United Arab Emirates and the Indian Ocean island nation.

Reporters Without Borders calls for his immediate release and suspension of the deportation process.

“By re-arresting Khaleq, the Emirati authorities have again shown the extremes to which they are ready to go to silence dissidents,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Their cynicism has repeatedly been demonstrated, above all in the comments by Col. Abdul Rahim bin Shafi of the interior ministry displaying complete contempt for public opinion and fundamental freedoms.”

Khaleq and other members of his family who, like him, are stateless, were told on 21 May that they would be given Comorian passports under the 2009 agreement that would allow them to continue residing in the UAE as Comorian “economic”
citizens (without political rights) as a first step toward being naturalized as Emirati citizens.

To receive the Comorian passports, they had to surrender the documents showing they were stateless persons residing in the UAE. It was supposedly for this purpose that Khaleq was summoned to the immigration department on 22 May. But the authorities arrested him with the intention of deporting him, while giving his family the Comorian passports that will allow them to remain in the UAE.

Khaleq and the four other members of the “UAE 5” were arrested in April 2011 after issuing a petition calling for democratic reforms, and were held until late November.

The United Arab Emirates is listed as a country under surveillance in the “Enemies of the Internet” report that Reporters Without Borders issued in March. The UAE authorities recently stepped up their harassment of online dissidents.

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“The interior’s minister’s reaction reflects an outdated and simplistic view of journalism, with public-service media that follow orders, on the one hand, and privately-owned media that can express opinions, on the other,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The minister needs to understand that public-service media are supposed to serve the public, not the state. The information in the offending report was of general interest.

“We call on President Ikililou Dhoinine to rescind his interior minister’s decision and to reinstate Mouignihazi for media freedom’s sake. The country’s image and its good position in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index are at stake.”

Last January, the president urged Comorian reporters to “conduct investigative journalism” into the corruption “afflicting the country.” He also professed a “determination to ensure that, during my term of office, no journalists are deprived of their freedom because of their opinions.”

But in a news conference this week, the interior minister said: “Any state media journalist who wants the freedom to write or speak has to conform to the government line, or have the intellectual honesty to go and work elsewhere, for a privately-owned news outlet. The government is not going to receive lessons from Al Watwan.”

The 9 April issue of Al Watwan Magazine featured a special report headlined, “Public finances: chaos, waste and corruption.” One of its articles, an extract of which was published by Agence France-Presse, condemned “criminal practices” in the management of the state’s finances.

“The same practices and spending procedures, which were previously condemned as grave abuses causing structural debt accumulation, have never been rectified,” the article said. “Spending procedures are tainted (…) and open the way to every kind of abuse in which the beneficiaries are often the officials involved.” The article also accused the finance minister of “covering up” some of these practices.

According to Agence France-Presse, the supplement quoted an auditor as saying the situation allowed the government to “continue paying invoices for equipment that was not delivered and for work that was never carried out.”

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In January, the European Union urged Comorian authorities to proceed with the handover of power, which is scheduled to occur by May 26, according to a June 2010 agreement brokered by international mediators to appease political tensions between the leaders of the Comoros’ three main islands, according to news reports.

A public prosecutor in Moroni, capital of the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros, charged Ali Moindjié, editor of the private daily “Albalad”, and Hadji Hassanali, editor of bimonthly “La Tribune des Comores”, under the penal code, according to the news reports. The charges are based on a news item, published in “Albalad” on March 3 edition and in “La Tribune des Comores” on February 20, reporting that the official swearing-in ceremony of president-elect Dhoinine “could be” delayed beyond the scheduled date of May 26. Presidential Chief of Staff Ahmed Ben Said Jaffar denied the claim that there may be a delay, and the public prosecutor deemed the reports “of a nature to trouble public order,” according to local journalists.

“Political reporting is not a criminal offense punishable by prison as the authorities seem to think,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “We call on the magistrate overseeing the trial to dismiss these overblown charges against Ali Moindjié and Hadji Hassanali.”

Moindjié told the Panafrican News Agency that police pressed him to reveal his sources for the story in question during interrogations on Friday. Moindjié and Hassanali are scheduled to appear in court on April 11, according to local journalists.

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Freedom of the Press 2007: Comoros

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Journalist goes into hiding after escaping arrest by Anjouan security forces

RSF has expressed concerns about the safety of journalist Kamal Ali Yahoudha, head of the Anjouan branch of the Comoros Islands national broadcaster (Office de radio et télévision des Comores, ORTC). The journalist went into hiding on 1 December 2007, after narrowly escaping arrest by security forces from the island’s rebel. He had been alerted a few hours earlier and had time to flee.

In a phone interview, Yahoudha said he feared having been placed on a list of people to arrest due to their presumed hostility to Anjouan’s rebel government and its self-proclaimed president, Colonel Mohamed Bacar add: The journalist said tension had been growing on the island and there were rumours of an imminent arrival of armed forces from the Comoros national government.

Yahoudha was the head of the Anjouan branch of the ORTC until the station’s closure in May by Bacar’s rebel government.

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