Journalist Moussa Aksar, editor of the newspaper L’Evénement, has been repeatedly criminalized over his reporting. He was charged on two separate occasions under Niger’s 2019 Cybercrime Law, and has appealed both cases. This Law has been widely misused to censor journalists speaking out and criticizing the government. Aksar is waiting on appeals decisions and could still face prison and/or fines.
Mr. Moussa Aksar is an investigative journalist who specializes in reporting on security and terrorism in the Sahel, and whose work produced investigations into corruption, drugs and fake medicine scandals, and the trafficking of babies across West Africa. He is the editor of the newspaper L’Evénement and a member of several international organizations of investigative journalists.
In a story published in September 2020, Mr. Aksar disclosed how tens of millions of euros were misappropriated by senior officials, both in the army and close to the government, through overbilling of military equipment, supplying faulty weapons and not fulfilling contracts. According to his investigation, these individuals had set up a shell company that was being used to funnel government funds meant for military spending.
After being intimidated and suffering death threats, he was sued for defamation by a Niger national living in Belgium. Mr. Aksar was charged under article 29 of the 2019 Cybercrime Law. In May 2021, Mr. Aksar was fined 200,000 CFA (more than 330 USD) and ordered to pay one million CFA (more than 1,600 USD) in compensation over an investigation that broke in Niger into the misappropriation of funds. He appealed the case.
In May 2021, L’Evénement republished a report on its website about drug trafficking in Niger. As a result, Niger’s Central Office for the Repression of Illicit Trafficking (OCRTIS) said the report contained “unfounded accusations.” On September 9, stemming from a complaint filed by OCRTIS, Mr. Aksar was charged under the Cybercrime Law, alongside journalist Samira Sabou, who posted a summary of this report on her Facebook page.
In January 2022, Mr. Aksar was convicted again of “defamation by electronic communication” and “dissemination of data likely to disturb public order or undermine human dignity,” for which he was fined 100,000 CFA (+172 USD) and received a suspended prison sentence of two months. Ms. Sabou was also convicted. Both appealed the decision the next day.
It should be noted that, in October 2021, the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders and the Special Rapporteur for freedom of opinion and expression voiced their concern “about the charges against Ms. Samira and Mr. Aksar, which appear to be directly related to the exercise of their right to freedom of expression.” Additionally, they highlighted their concerns regarding the articles of the Cybercrime Law that were used to indict the journalists, because they “are likely to have a chilling effect on the exercise of freedom of expression in Niger, and on the important work of journalists and human rights defenders in the country”.
The 2019 Cybercrime Law in Niger has been used to close civic space in Niger, particularly due to article 31, which criminalizes the ‘dissemination, production and making available to others of data that may disturb public order or threaten human dignity through an information system’. Since the Law came into force, activists have been arrested after criticizing the government via WhatsApp or Facebook. As a result, citizens are being suppressed for pointing out corruption allegations against government officials.
Another example is the arrest and conviction of journalist Kaka Touda Mamane Goni, after he published a post on social media about a suspected COVID-19 case at a hospital on March 4, two weeks before Nigerien authorities publicly confirmed the country’s first coronavirus case. He was found guilty of “dissemination of data likely to disturb public order” under the Cybercrime Law. He was given a three-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay a symbolic fine to the hospital.
- Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), Conviction of Samira Sabou and Moussa Aksar sets dangerous precedent for Niger (04 January 2022)
- Civicus, Two journalists charged under the Cybercrime law (29 October 2021)