Presss Freedom

Reporters Without Borders today condemned the six-month prison sentence imposed on 10 January on Jules Koum Koum, the editor of the independent fortnightly Le Jeune Observateur, for alleged libel in an article questioning the management of two insurance companies.
Koum has been held in New Bell prison in Douala, the country's business capital, ever since the sentence was handed down.
"Imposing a prison sentence on a journalist for libel represents a clear step backwards for press freedom in Cameroon," Reporters Without Borders said.
"Far from being a crime, reporting that certain companies are not functioning properly comes under a journalist's duty to inform the public," the press freedom organisation stressed, endorsing a call for a "day without news" on 21 January issued by a Koum support committee.
"It is time the Cameroon government stopped targeting the independent press and heeded calls by journalists for the decriminalization of press offences," Reporters Without Borders said, adding, "if it really wants to prove its support for press freedom, it should follow the example set in this regard by countries such as Togo, the Central African Republic and Uganda."
Koum was convicted of libel as a result of an action brought by the CPA insurance company over an article he published on 8 February 2004 questioning the reliability and good management of CPA and another insurance company, Satellite. Some sources claim that the judge in charge of the case is related to a CPA executive.
His conviction has outraged the independent press, which formed a Koum support committee on the initiative of L'Aurore Plus editor Michel Michaut Moussala. Its members include Le Front editor Peter William Mandio, Habeas Corpus editor Samuel Mben Mben and Nyemb Popoli, who edits a satirical newspaper. On the "day without news" they have called for 21 January, radio stations will only play music in the morning.
Moussala and Cameroon Union of Journalists president Célestin Lingo went to see communication minister Jacques Fame Ndong this afternoon, but he declined to see them. They plan to go back on 24 January.