Dakar, February 20, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Malagasy authorities to immediately release investigative journalist Fernand Cello, who has been in detention since his January 29 arrest over a Facebook post about President Andry Rajoelina.
On January 30, a judge charged Cello with spreading false news and undermining national security and placed him in pretrial detention in Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo’s Antanimora prison, one of Cello’s relatives told CPJ, on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals.
“Fernand Cello should never have been arrested based on a warrant issued in October 2023 for a social media post that he apologized for soon after publication,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Rather than criminalizing journalists, Malagasy authorities should free Fernand Cello and drop all charges against him.”
Cello’s September 15, 2023, Facebook post inaccurately said that Rajoelina had left the country on a flight that included the High Constitutional Court president Florent Rakotoarisoa.
Days earlier, the court had dismissed opposition appeals to void Rajoelina’s candidacy on the grounds of his dual French-Malagasy nationality. Rajoelina won a third term in November 2023.
On September 16, 2023, Cello published a video “explaining and apologizing” for his mistake. In March 2024, he published another video apology and asked Rakotoarisoa to “end his persecution.”
Cello, who was arrested at home, had been in hiding since the warrant, the family member told CPJ. The journalist continued to work for the privately owned newspaper Basy Vava, a second relative said. He also posted daily news and comments on Facebook.
In 2017, Cello was detained for four months, before receiving a two-year suspended sentence for cheque theft, in a case that he said was in retribution for his work at the local station Radio Jupiter, which broadcast allegations of an electricity firm’s financial irregularities and illegal sapphire mining. He was acquitted on appeal in 2019.
CPJ’s calls to the communication and justice ministries to request comment were not answered.