From Sierra Leone, CEOAFRICA.com gathered that two newspaper editors were charged to court with 26 counts of seditious libel for comparing President Ernest Bai Koroma to a rat.

Jonathan Leigh and Bai-Bai Sesay, both managing editors of the daily Independent Observer, were detained since last week and they were denied bail by the court.

Journalists in the West African country said they would boycott government press conferences in protest and the head of their association.
 
Reporters said police had raided the offices of several media organizations since the publication of the article which alleged friction between Koroma and his vice-president and said the president was behaving like a rat.
 
The West African country has enjoyed extensive press freedom during Karma’s presidency and it was this year  promoted to "free" from "partly free" by Freedom House.  

Our sources disclosed that President Koroma had warned two times earlier in the year against any form of “reckless journalism”.

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders called for the immediate release of the two journalists, while Amnesty International urged the government to drop all charges.
 
"Criminal defamation charges against media workers highlight the incredibly worrying climate for freedom of expression in the West African country," Amnesty's Sierra Leone researcher, Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus, said.