Mali junta using cybercrime laws to silence journalists, IPI warns

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The International Press Institute has raised the alarm over the growing use of cybercrime laws by Mali’s military authorities to target journalists and suppress critical reporting.

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The warning followed the imprisonment and prosecution of several Malian journalists over their reports, public comments and criticism of the authorities.

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The IPI Africa Programme Lead, Nompilo Simanje, in a statement published on the IPI website on Thursday, said the development reflected a wider trend across Africa, where cybercrime provisions were increasingly being used against journalists.

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“The escalating weaponisation of cybercrime provisions to target journalists is a deeply alarming trend that continues to intensify across Africa, including in Mali, Zambia and Nigeria, among others,” Simanje said.

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She said the development highlighted the need for countries to review cybercrime laws that could undermine freedom of expression.

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“This trend shows the urgent need to repeal these provisions and ensure that cybercrime legislation is aligned with regional and international standards on freedom of expression,” she added.

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The warning comes against the backdrop of a series of cases involving journalists in Mali.

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The institute said Malian journalist and editor of 22 Septembre, Chahana Takiou, was sentenced on August 3 to 12 months in prison, with six months suspended, and fined for undermining the credibility of the state through the judicial system.

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According to the IPI, Takiou had been arrested in June by the National Cybercrime Unit after criticising the use of cybercrime provisions to target journalists during remarks at the Pan-African Media Forum in Bamako.

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The institute also reported that Abdrahamane Keita of Le Témoin was detained on June 9 over comments he made during a live media programme concerning the security situation in northern Mali.

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IPI said Keita was charged with undermining national unity and the credibility of the state and disseminating false and misleading information, adding that his trial, initially scheduled for August 17, had been postponed to August 31.

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The IPI further said the trial of Malian radio and television commentator Mohamed Youssouf Bathily, popularly known as Ras Bath, began on August 10.

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According to the institute, Bathily is charged with criminal association and undermining the credibility of the state through information and communication technologies.

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The IPI said Bathily had been in detention since his arrest in March 2023 following public comments about the death in custody of former Prime Minister Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga.

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It described his prolonged detention and successive prosecutions as an illustration of the broader use of criminal law and cybercrime-related provisions to target critical voices and journalists in Mali.

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Simanje urged the Malian authorities to release journalists imprisoned in connection with their work.

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“We call on authorities in Mali to release all journalists imprisoned in connection with their work, and to end the misuse of criminal and cybercrime provisions to suppress critical reporting,” she said.

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The IPI said Mali amended its Penal Code in December 2024 to incorporate provisions that had previously been contained in the 2019 cybercrime law.

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It added that a specialised cybercrime unit, the Pôle national de lutte contre la cybercriminalité, had been established to enforce offences involving digital and telecommunications technologies.

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According to the institute, several critical journalists have been arrested and imprisoned under the amended Penal Code.

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The president of Maison de la Presse, the national umbrella organisation of press defence groups, Dante Bandiangou, said the country needed laws that protected journalists in the course of their profession.

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“We want a healthy media environment with legislation that protects journalists in the exercise of their profession. The expansion of digital technology must be an opportunity and not an obstacle to the thriving of press freedom,” Bandiangou told the IPI.

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The institute said it had earlier published a feature on the widening crackdown against independent reporting in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger amid the security crisis in the Sahel.

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