By Rachad Bani Samari
“The fear of going to jail is now a lethal weapon used by public officials to muzzle the press,” bemoaned Ignace Soussou, a 32-year-old Beninois investigative journalist, when asked about the situation of press freedom in the country. He gets tensed, a bit uneasy, and tries to crack a smile. Soussou has been a victim of jail terms being used to silence critical journalists.
In the early hours of Friday, December 20, 2019, around 5 am, Ignace Soussou and his family were rudely awoken from sleep following a flurry of bangs on their door. It was a group of armed policemen and anti-cybercrime officials. They had come to arrest Ignace for tweeting remarks made by Benin’s Public Prosecutor during a conference hosted by the French media development agency CFI.
“I did what all journalists do; publish information they believe is critical for the population,” Ignace explained. The Public Prosecutor, however, contested his remarks were taken out of context.
As Ignace was dragged without an arrest warrant to the quarters of the Central Office for the Repression of Cybercrime (OCRC), his five-year-old daughter watched and wailed uncontrollably, piercing the early morning quiet, while his wife leaned at the door, confused, her eyes soaked in tears.
The high-handed treatment of Ignace Soussou, who was later condemned to 18 months in jail for “harassment by means of electronic communication”, has now become a norm for journalists, bloggers, and online activists in the Republic of Benin, long touted as a democratic beacon, and a shining star for press freedom in Africa.
In 1991, Benin became the first West African nation under military dictatorship to return to democratic governance after Beninois voted out General Mathieu Kérékou who had seized power in a coup in 1972 and ruled the country for 18 years. The 1991 election marked the first time an incumbent military president was peacefully voted out in a West African nation.
The return to multiparty democracy ushered in an environment fertile for the development of the media and free speech as laws considered repressive to the press were repealed giving way to constitutional guarantees relatively protective of freedom of expression and of the press.
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