Sierra Leone News: Cabinet Approves Repeal of Obnoxious Libel Law
By Abu Bakarr Munu
Cabinet on Wednesday September 11, 2019, approved the repeal of the obnoxious criminal libel and deformation law — Part V of the Public Order Act of 1965. It was a campaign promise of present Julius Maada Bio to repeal the draconian law passed in 1965.
The Minister of Information and Communication, Mohamed Abdul Rahman Swaray told a regular news conference on Thursday in Freetown that, the current administration under the leadership of President Julius Maada Bio has taken the bold step to do what successive governments had failed to do. He said that the repeal process will be formalised by Parliament when it resumes this month.
“However, the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law is not a licence given to any journalist to go about practising recklessly,” Minister Swaray warned.
Public Order Act of 1965 (POA) appears to provide the government great latitude in criminalizing criticisms, comments or opinions that the government dislikes or finds unduly critical of its policies.
Section 28 (1) states that the truth of the statement published is not a defense. Truth is only relevant to the extent that the defendant is alleging that the publication was for the public benefit. Consequently, an accurate but critical comment from a newspaper may trigger prosecution under the statute if the government believes that the statement is likely to disturb the peace, seriously affect the defamed person’s reputation or bring into hatred or contempt or excite disaffection with the Government.
The Act therefore creates in essence two offences; seditious libel and defamatory libel, either of which can land a defendant in jail if found guilty of the offence. This is why newspaper editors, journalists, reporters, publishers, printers, musicians, dramatists, comedians may be charged with violating the POA and face possible incarceration.
Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) and rights organisations including the Society for Democratic Initiative (SDI) and Amnesty international have been championing campaigns to repeal the draconian law.
