(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release: CAMEROON: Independent newspaper targeted in legal suits New York, August 19, 2005-The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by the continued legal harassment of the independent weekly L’Oeil du Sahel by members of Cameroon’s security forces. According to the newspaper’s director, Guibaï Gatama, members of the […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release:
CAMEROON: Independent newspaper targeted in legal suits
New York, August 19, 2005-The Committee to Protect Journalists is troubled by the continued legal harassment of the independent weekly L’Oeil du Sahel by members of Cameroon’s security forces. According to the newspaper’s director, Guibaï Gatama, members of the Army have brought at least twelve court cases against the newspaper since the beginning of the year, threatening the paper’s financial survival.
Founded in 1998, L’Oeil du Sahel is one of few independent publications to cover Cameroon’s isolated northern region, and is an important source of information for local residents, according to local journalists. It frequently reports abuses of power by security forces in the area, and journalists working for the paper are often threatened and intimidated by local officials and soldiers, CPJ sources say.
On Wednesday, a court in Maroua, the capital of Cameroon’s Far North Province, sentenced Gatama in absentia to pay damages of 5 million CFA francs (about U.S. $ 9,274) each to the head of military security in the province and a local high school superintendent, and a fine of 2 million CFA francs (U.S. $3,709). Both were named in an article published in L’Oeil du Sahel in October 2003 which alleged that the security chief had beaten up the superintendent for making his son do manual labor with the other students. According to Gatama, it was the military chief, Dinama René, who brought the defamation case against the newspaper. Gatama stands by the story.
Meanwhile, the paper’s management is appealing an April court verdict sentencing Gatama and one of the newspaper’s reporters to five months in jail and a 5 million CFA franc fine for an article criticizing a local military police brigade. The case was brought by a commander of a brigade of military police based in the northern town of Fotokol. The journalists’ appeal will be heard on August 30. (To read more about this case, see CPJ’s protest letter: http://www.cpj.org/protests/05ltrs/Cameroon10may05pl.html)
According to Gatama, both the April and August court hearings were conducted without the knowledge of L’Oeil du Sahel management, and no journalists from the newspaper were present at either.
“We are concerned that army officials are using the courts to intimidate the courageous staff of L’Oeil du Sahel,” said Ann Cooper, executive director of CPJ. “While we do not dispute the right of individual citizens to seek redress for alleged libel, this pattern of harassment suggests a targeted campaign.”
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.cpj.org
