His Excellency President Idriss Déby Itno
N’Djamena, Chad

4 March 2008

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our serious concern at the adoption by decree of a harsh new press law that increases jail sentences for press “crimes” and makes it much more difficult to launch a newspaper.

According to reports, on 20 February the government adopted a press law that raises the maximum penalty for publishing “false news” and defamation to three years in prison, while the maximum penalty for "insulting the president" is increased to five years. Anyone who wants to launch a newspaper must now appear before the prosecutor’s office and the High Council of Communication, and both publisher and editor must have graduated from a school of journalism.

The law was introduced under the current state of emergency and so adopted by decree, thereby avoiding any debate.

Meanwhile, two communiqués issued on 18 and 21 February by the High Council of Communication and the government have banned the media from reporting “the activities of the armed opposition in any form” and “any information jeopardising national cohesion and inciting unrest”.

We respectfully remind you that the new press law and the ban on reporting on opposition activities constitutes a clear breach of the right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Furthermore, the jailing of journalists for carrying out their profession contradicts the principles of the Declaration of Table Mountain, issued by our organisations at the 60th World Newspaper Congress and 14th World Editors Forum Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, in June 2007, which calls for the abolition of “insult’” and criminal defamation laws in Africa as a matter of urgency.

We respectfully call on you to do everything in your power to ensure that the new press law is repealed and that defamation is decriminalised. We urge you to take all necessary steps to ensure that in future your country fully upholds international standards of freedom of expression.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

cc Prime Minister Nouradine Delwa Kassiré Coumakoye.

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 11 regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.