The three editors of privately-owned daily, Le Noveau Courier newspaper who were detained by the Ivorian authorities for refusing to reveal their sources of information over a July 13 publication were to appear before the Plateau Magistrate court in Abidjan, the capital, on July 21.
The journalists could go to prison for a year if the court granted a request by Oulaï Fernand, the prosecutor in the case who had asked the court to jail the journalists twelve months each and also impose a 10 million CFA francs (about US$ 20,000) fine on each of them.
The journalists, Saint Claver Oula, Stéphane Guédé and Théophile Kouamouo, editor-in-chief, publisher and managing editor respectively, were being tried summarily for publishing a leaked report on corruption in the cocoa and coffee sector of the country.
They were charged for “theft of an administrative document” and sent to the Abidjan Civil Prison.
