Media Legal Defence Initiative

History

Notable cases supported

• Burundi Journalists' Union v. Burundi, at the East African Court of Justice. MLDI represented the Journalists Union with Don Deya arguing the matter before the EACJ;
• Lohé Issa Konaté v. Burkina Faso, the first free speech case before the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights which ruled that the imprisonment for defamation of a journalist from Burkina Faso violated his rights and ordered the country to change its laws. MLDI's Legal Director, Nani Jansen, represented Lohé Issa Konaté v. Burkina Faso before the Court alongside John Jones QC and Steven Finizio;
• MLDI contributed to the defence costs of Al Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy, on trial in Egypt on charges of being part of a terrorist group, broadcasting “false news, and operating without adequate licences”;
• The appeal to the European Court of Human Rights of Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizade, two Azeri bloggers who uploaded a satirical video featuring an interview with a violin-playing donkey onto YouTube. In response they were beaten up - and then arrested and imprisoned for affray;
• The defence of Thai webmaster Chiranuch Premchaiporn in her criminal case for allowing comments that were critical of the Thai monarchy to appear on news and current affairs website, Prachatai;
• The defence of Nigerian corruption and human rights website Sahara Reporters in several multimillion-dollar libel suits launched against it in the United States;
• The defence of Ugandan journalist Patrick Otim, wrongly accused of treason and imprisoned for two years;
• The defence of Kenyan journalist Bernard Okebe, false accused of attempting to bribe the police following a story on police corruption;
• The defence of Thai newspaper columnist Kamol Kamoltrakul in a multimillion-dollar defamation case brought against him in 2008 by Tesco Lotus, the Southeast Asian subsidiary of Tesco PLC, the world's second largest supermarket chain. Mr Kamoltrakol had criticised Tesco Lotus for driving homegrown small businesses out of existence. After much pressure Tesco eventually dropped the case;
• Raynor v. Richardson, which overturned Bermuda's criminal libel statute;
• Wattan TV's appeal to the Israeli High Court for compensation and damages, following an illegal army raid on their offices;
• A case brought against Ugandan police brought by two journalists who were beaten up when they tried to film a story critical of the police;
• The defence in 2009 and subsequent appeal to the UN Human Rights Committee of the libel case of Almas Kusherbaev, a Kazakh journalist who criticised the involvement of a Kazakh politician, Romin Madinov, in the trade of grain which has pushed up the price of bread in the country;
• The defence of Rwandan journalists Agnes Uwimana and Saidat Mukakibibi, for which it send a legal team consisting of MLDI's Legal Counsel Nani Jansen and barrister John Jones to conduct the defence of the case alongside Rwandan counsel. Initially convicted on multiple counts of genocide denial and endangering national security and sentenced to seventeen and seven years, an MLDI-supported Supreme Court appeal saw the two acquitted on all charges save defamation of the president and one count of endangering national security and the sentences reduced. The case is currently pending before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.
• Submitting cases of prominent Vietnamese citizen journalists and rights activists including Le Dinh Luong, Nguyen Van Dai and Nguyen Dang Minh Man to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

Partners

Organisation and funding

Award