A Malian journalist was sentenced on Monday to two years in prison following remarks during a TV programme about his west African nation’s security situation.

Abderhamane Keita, an editor at the daily Le Temoin paper, was taken into custody in early June for “undermining national unity and the credibility of the state” and “publishing and disseminating false or misleading information”.

He was prosecuted after asserting on a TV programme focused on the security situation in Mali that the northern city of Kidal was being run by the leader of the jihadist group JNIM.

Since late April, the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and its Tuareg separatist allies have waged a series of attacks aimed at weakening the country’s junta rulers.

This has included taking Kidal and assassinating the minister of defence in April.

Keita appeared before the country’s national cybercrime unit last week, with his verdict announced Monday.

His lawyer told AFP that they would appeal the decision.

The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called Keita’s conviction “unjust” and a “new way of criminalising journalism”.

The head of the group’s sub-Saharan Africa bureau, Sadibou Marong, said it “sends out a particularly troubling signal to media professionals in Mali and the region”.

Mali’s authorities, RSF added, should “put an end to the use of the justice system against journalists”.

Mali has been wracked since 2012 by a serious security crisis, notably fuelled by violence from jihadists allied to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group, along with criminal gangs and armed separatists.

In recent years Mali’s junta, which came to power in two successive coups in 2020 and 2021, has taken numerous measures against the press and critical voices.

Authorities have also dissolved political parties and banned associations’ political activities.

AFP