JANUARY 10, 2005
Updated: February 15, 2005
Jules Koum Koum, Le Jeune Observateur
LEGAL ACTION, IMPRISONED
Jules Koum Koum, publication director of the private bimonthly Le Jeune Observateur, was sentenced to six months in prison for allegedly defaming the CPA insurance company in an article published in February 2004.
Local sources say the article was titled "Are CPA and Satellite reliable insurance companies?" Koum was imprisoned in the New Bell Jail in the southwestern port city of Douala.
On February 9, Koum was granted a provisional release pending an Appeals Court decision on his case. He was freed the next day.
APRIL 20, 2005
Posted: May 12, 2005
Guibaï Gatama and Abdoulaye Oumaté L'Oeil du Sahel
LEGAL ACTION.
On April 20, a court in Maroua, the capital of Cameroon's Far North Province, sentenced Guibaï Gatama, publication director of the independent weekly L'Oeil du Sahel, and Abdoulaye Oumaté, a journalist for the paper, to five months in prison and fined them 5 million CFA francs (approximately U.S. $9,782) in a criminal defamation case.
According to local sources, the case was brought by Ahmed Aliou Ousman, a commander of a brigade of military police, or gendarmes, based in the northern town of Fotokol. The charge stemmed from an article published in February in L'Oeil du Sahel, which alleged that local gendarmes had extorted money at roadblocks.
The newspaper's staff was not informed of Aliou's charges or of the judicial hearing until the sentence had been passed, Gatama said. Gatama appealed the sentence, but expressed concern that a second commander named in the article had also filed criminal defamation charges.
Local sources told CPJ that journalists from L'Oeil du Sahel had been harassed frequently by local authorities. The newspaper is one of the few independent media outlets to operate in Cameroon's northern region.
JULY 6, 2005
Updated: July 28, 2005
Joseph Bessala Ahanda, Le Front
IMPRISONED
CPJ sources said a prosecutor ordered Ahanda, editor-in-chief of the private weekly Le Front, jailed during a judicial investigation into defamation allegations against him.
The case stems from a series of reports in Le Front alleging that the former director of the Cameroon Postal Services and the publication director of a private newspaper collaborated in embezzling state funds, local sources said.
Peter William Mandio, Le Front's publication director, said Ahanda was being held at the Kodengui Prison in the capital, Yaoundé. It was unclear whether Ahanda would face trial, and he could be detained indefinitely while the investigation is taking place, Mandio told CPJ.
Ahanda was released without charge on July 21, Mandio told CPJ.
Le Front is based in the southern commercial city of Douala, but is distributed throughout the country.
AUGUST 17, 2005
Posted: September 15, 2005
Guibaï Gatama, L'Oeil du Sahel
LEGAL ACTION
A court in Maroua, the capital of Cameroon's Far North Province, sentenced L'Oeil du Sahel publication director Guibaï Gatama in absentia to pay damages of 5 million CFA francs (U.S. $ 9,275) to the head of military security in the province and the same sum to a local high school superintendent. Gatama was also fined 2 million CFA francs (U.S. $3,700).
Both men were named in an article 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, René Dinama who brought the defamation case against the newspaper. Gatama stands by the story.
Local journalists told CPJ that the verdict was the latest instance of harassment targeting L'Oeil du Sahel, one of the only independent publications to cover Cameroon's isolated northern region. Army officers had brought at least twelve court cases against the newspaper since the beginning of the year, threatening its financial survival, according to Gatama. The newspaper frequently reports abuses of power by security forces in the area, and its journalists are often threatened by local officials and soldiers, CPJ sources say.
In April, Gatama and a reporter were both sentenced to five months in jail and a hefty fine for an article criticizing a local military police brigade. 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.