Dakar — The Committee to Protect Journalists calls for the release of journalist Bakary Gamalo Bamba, director of the bimonthly newspaper Le Baobab, who has been detained since October 20 on charges of invasion of privacy.

"Guinean authorities should immediately and unconditionally release journalist Bakary Gamalo Bamba, who has been jailed since October 20, when he recorded a judge as part of his work," said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ's Africa program, in Johannesburg. "The fact that Guinean law protects against journalists being jailed for their work, except for narrow circumstances, only enhances the injustice of Bamba's arrest and detention."

On October 20, Francis Kova Zoumanigui, a judge and president of Guinea's Court for the Repression of Economic and Financial Crimes, slapped Bamba and doused him with wine after discovering that the journalist was recording their meeting at the judge's home in Conakry, the Guinean capital, according to a statement by the Syndicate of Press Professionals in Guinea (SPPG). Bamba, 68, said during his trial that he recorded their discussion so that he could take notes about a case he was investigating, did not intend to name the judge in his report, and that a security agent for Zoumanigui had beaten him on the judge's instruction.

Zoumanigui told CPJ that Bamba didn't present himself as a journalist and had not been mistreated. "I don't wish him any jail time, but I had to clean up my image after the false accusations spread by the press," he added.

On Tuesday, a judge rejected Bamba lawyer's request to release the journalist and set November 12 as the date for closing arguments.

Bamba's detention violates Guinea's press freedom law, which states that journalists should not be jailed for offenses committed in the exercise of his profession, according to the SPPG. Under Article 132, a journalist living in Guinea may not be detained for their work, except for a few specific offenses, such as contempt for the head of state and dissemination of false news.