The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) welcomes the provisional release of journalist Alfousseini Togo and calls on the Malian authorities to drop all charges against him.
Togo, editor of Le Canard de la Venise newspaper, was released on bail on May 12, 2025, after being held in detention since April 9. He had been arrested by Mali’s Judicial Unit Against Cybercrime and charged with “undermining the state’s reputation,” “insults via a computer system,” and “defamation.”
The charges followed the publication of an article on April 8 titled “Malian justice or the plague of the century: the mistake made by Minister Mamoudou Kassogué.” In the piece, Togo questioned the accuracy of figures cited by the Minister of Justice regarding a survey on public trust in Mali’s judiciary conducted by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. While the Minister claimed that confidence in the judiciary had risen from 30% to 72% in 2024, Togo challenged the reliability of the claim, pointing out that the survey’s sample size—2,055 respondents—was inadequate for a country with over 23 million people.
Sources close to the journalist told the MFWA in a phone interview that the court ordered Togo’s immediate release on bail of CFA 500,000 (USD 847). The MFWA, along with its national partner La Maison de la Presse and other press freedom advocates, had called for Togo’s immediate and unconditional release.
While we welcome his provisional release, the MFWA urges the Malian judicial authorities to guarantee a fair and transparent trial when Togo appears in court on June 12, 2025. We also reiterate our call for all charges against him to be dropped, as they represent an attempt to criminalise critical journalism and silence dissenting voices.
