On June 8, Mali’s National Cybercrime Unit ordered the arrest of Chahana Takiou, publishing director of the biweekly 22 Septembre newspaper, over his comments at a media forum. Takiou condemned the two-year sentence handed down to journalist Youssouf Sissoko in March for “undermining the state’s credibility” with a newspaper commentary about neighboring Niger’s president that was shared on social media.
“He should have been tried under the press law, but since the advent of the cybercrime law, judges have been superbly ignoring it,” Takiou said to a prosecutor on a discussion panel.
Takiou was remanded in prison in the capital, Bamako, pending trial on July 27, under the cybercrime law, for “undermining the state’s reputation through the judicial system.”
On August 3, the cybercrime court sentenced Takiou to a 12-month prison term, including six months of mandatory imprisonment. The remaining six months would only be served if Takiou committed another offense or did not comply with the court’s requirements.
Article 54 of the cybercrime law allows the cybercrime unit to prosecute journalists under ordinary criminal penalties that often stipulate several years in jail, except for offenses committed by the “press on the Internet” — a term that is not defined.
The cybercrimes unit’s first deputy prosecutor Mohamed Timbiné told local media in June that newspaper journalists whose work is shared on social media could be prosecuted for cybercrimes.
“Someone who defames in a newspaper, for example … if the publication is not on social networks, effectively it is the law of 2000 that applies. But if afterwards, these same writings end up on social networks and it has consequences on social networks, naturally, it is the 2019 law on cybercrime that applies, even if the person is a journalist, because this law applies to everyone without exception,” he said.
CPJ’s June 2026 calls to the cybercrime unit went unanswered.