By Adebayo Micheal
Togo has charged two Editors, Ferdinand Ayite and Joel Egah of the Bi-weekly L’Alternative and the Weekly Fraternite with “contempt of Authority” and “spreading false statements on social media,” according to their lawyer on Saturday.
They were arrested and detained on December 10th over an alleged comments made during an online broadcast.
Reports say a third journalist who also took part in the broadcast, Isidore Kouwonou had been placed under judicial supervision.
Amnesty International earlier this month called for Ayite and Egah’s release, denouncing what it called an “arbitrary detention” and accused the authorities of wanting to “silence critics.”
Togo is a small West African state which has been ruled since 2005 by President Faure Gnassingbe being often accused by rights groups of cracking down on opposition figures and the media.
