-44161. Having indicated that limitations should be proportionate to achieve a legitimate objective, the U.N. Human Rights Committee, on its part, also considers that: "States Parties [to the Covenant] should take care to avoid excessively punitive measures and penalties. If necessary, Party States should put reasonable limits on the obligation of the defendant to reimburse court costs to the party which won the case. States parties should consider decriminalizing defamation and, in all cases, the application of criminal law should be confined to the most serious cases and imprisonment is never an appropriate penalty35 ." 162. In the present case, the Court notes that the Respondent State recognizes all the merits of decriminalization in that it stated that the issue "is under discussion in Burkina Faso which has the concern, like many other countries around the world, to comply, as quickly as possible, with the guidelines on this subject issued by international and Community bodies". 163. In essence, the Court notes that, for now, defamation is an offense punishable by imprisonment in the legislation of the Respondent State, and that the latter failed to show how a penalty of imprisonment was a necessary limitation to freedom of expression in order to protect the rights and reputation of members of the judiciary. 164. Accordingly, the Court opines that sections 109 and 110 of the Information Code and section 178 of the Penal Code of Burkina Faso on the basis of which the Applicant was sentenced to a custodial sentence is contrary to requirements of article 9 of the Charter and article 19 of the Covenant. The Applicant having also mentioned article 66 (2) (c) of the Revised ECOWAS Treaty under which States parties undertake to "respect the rights of journalists", the Court finds that the Respondent State also failed in its duty in this regard in that the custodial sentence under the above legislation constitutes a disproportionate interference in the 35 Human Rights Committee, General Observation No. 34, Article 19: Freedom of Opinion and Freedom of Expression, para 47