SUMMARY:
A news website editor was acquitted of defamation charges today after six months in pre-trial detention.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RWB), a Bujumbura court released Jean-Claude Kavumbagu — editor of the Net Press news Web site — who was being held on claims of defamation against President Pierre Nkurnziza.
Kavumbagu was first brought in pre-trial detention on Sept. 11, 2008. He was being held in Mpimba central prison as a result of a "complaint" brought by the government secretary-general.
The complaint was regarding an article written by Kavumbagu in which he wrote that
President Nkurnziza spent $100 million Burundian francs (about $94,125 U.S. dollars) during his visit to the Olympic Games' opening ceremony in Beijing.
The Burundian government secretary-general insisted the president was only given $50 million for the trip.
Reports of Kavambagu's arrest were made public on the RWB Web site on Sept. 11, 2008.
Kavumbagu was arrested multiple times under the previous government in 2001 and 2003. His site was suspended by the media regulatory body in 2005.
MY OPINION:
Maybe it is just a bias because I am a journalism student. Or maybe it is because I believe that many governments--if not all--around the world are corrupt and that the Bujumbura government lied to the public.
But I sincerely feel that the reporter was truthful in the information he reported.
It is good to see he has been released, but I'm sure he will have a "target on his back" for the rest of his journalistic career.
SOURCES:
RSF.org
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