The Ouaga II High Court declared Thursday, journalists Boureima Ouédraogo and Aimé Kobo Nabaloum, guilty of defamation and complicity in defamation, in the trial which opposed them to the Directors General of Taxes Daouda Kirakoya and Customs Mathias Kadiogo and the Minister of the Economy, Dr Aboubakar Nacanabo, reports libreinfo.net.

Boureima Ouédraogo and Aimé Kobo Nabaloum, respectively Publication Director and Editor-in-Chief of ''Le Reporter'', were sentenced at first instance to pay a fine of one million CFA francs with a suspended sentence, according to libreinfo. net.

They were jointly ordered to pay to each complainant the sum of 500,000 CFA francs for damages, as well as 500,000 CFA francs for costs incurred and not included in the costs, adds the online media.

The two journalists were taken to court after the publication of the article “Public finances: The Minister of Finance, the DGs and the billions of FCFA from Essakane”, in Le Reporter number 360 from June 15 to 30, 2023.

According to the article, the Burkinabe state would have lost 97 billion FCFA in a transaction deemed non-transparent with the mining company Essakane, started in December 2022.

While the journalists assured that the amount had still not been paid in July when the article appeared, the plaintiffs' lawyers brought a document to the court as proof.

The debates also focused on the impossibility for journalists to have the versions of the complainants, despite reminders.

Above all, it was said that the journalists spoke about a file of which they did not yet have all the ins and outs. They have fifteen days to appeal.

Source: Burkina Information Agency