Cameroon
Cameroonian journalist beaten for trying to interview president

afrol News, 13 December - Cameroonian journalist Jean Vincent Djenga Mondo, working at the private radio broadcaster Magic FM, was beaten up by presidential safety guards when trying to approach president Paul Biya. 

According to the information collected by the French media watchdogs Reporters sin Frontièrs (RSF), Magic FM journalist Djenga Mondo was "maltreated and threatened" by agents of the Directorate of Presidential Safety (DSP) on 8 December. 

The journalist had approached President Paul Biya at the 3rd ordinary session of the Heads of State of the CEMAC (Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa), to carry out an interview.

He then was attacked by the DSP, beaten and threatened, until the intervention of the Director of the Civil Cabinet to the Presidency of the Republic, Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo'o.

In a letter sent to the Minister of Transport, Jacques Fame-Ndongo, RSF yesterday protested against the aggression on 8 December, the organisation states. 

- This affair is representative of numerous threats to the journalists working within Cameroonian independent media, which, experienced on a daily basis, represent a genuine obstacle to the freedom of the press", Robert Ménard, Secretary-General of the organisationstated. 

- It is not the first time that a private journalist is bullyed by the Presidential Guard simply because he wanted to obtain comments from the Head of State," Ménard added. "This systematic censure is not acceptable for the Cameroonian people." 

RSF once again recalled that Cameroon has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, whose Article 19 guarantees freedom of expression and the freedom "to seek, to receive and spread information and ideas."

RSF in addition recalled that in the night of the 20 to 21 August, 2001, a journalist of a private media had been beaten up by police officers. Whereas Rémy Ngono, journalist of radio station RTS was returning from a dinner, he was challenged by police officers forcebly took him to the police station. 

Rémy Ngono there was hit several times and had been released only the following morning. According to the journalist, police officers had already attacked him once in May this year. Ngono is known for his critical tone in the daily, and very popular Yaoundé radio program "Coup franc" - "Honest knock".

In a report titled 'Hollow Promises: Freedom of Expression in Cameroon Since 1995', the human rights group Article 19 describes the Cameroon government as "a serious and persistent violator" of the civil and political rights of its citizens." 

The organisation further says it "believes that Cameroon's human rights record since 1995 leaves no room for equivocation by the international community." The organisation's conclusions are sustained by other independent reports, including US government sources, Amnesty International and the Cameroonian opposition.

Sources: RSF and afrol archives

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