LDS expresses support for ‘Seychelles Daily’ Admin Group and Seychelles Weekly newspaper |01 March 2018

The Linyon Demokratik Seselwa (LDS)has expressed its support to three individuals -- Flory Larue, Wavel Woodcock and Alexander Pierre, two of whom are LDS members of the National Assembly -- who are being sued as administrators of the Facebook group “Seychelles Daily” for having put up a post that advertised an article by Seychelles Weekly with regard to an alleged corruption case involving Minister Charles Bastienne in December 2016.

Minister Bastienne is suing the above persons for a sum of R3m. The case is to be heard today at 9am in the Supreme Court.

LDS says it believes that the above three have only used their site to give summary information to their readers on news appearing in a newspaper article and should in no way be held responsible for any statements in the said article itself.

“LDS believes in freedom of expression and of course the responsibility that must bear on such rights. It holds that it was unfair for the group admin to be sued for simply drawing attention of their viewers about the contents of a licenced weekly newspaper,” says an LDS communiqué.

“In line with these principles, LDS also supports the Seychelles Weekly newspaper for its work in tackling issues which relate to the responsibilities and obligations of elected and government appointed officials. A free press is a vital part of democratic society,” the communiqué adds.