July 25, 2000
President Paul Biya
Palais de L'Unité
Yaounde, Cameroon
VIA FAX: 011.237.233.022
Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is outraged at the prison sentences
recently imposed on three journalists from the private biweekly publication
Dikalo in retaliation for their coverage of alleged corruption
and mismanagement at a local trade union.
On July 18, CPJ sources say, the Yaounde Court of First Instance convicted
Dikalo publisher Celestin Biake Difana and two of his staff reporters,
Daniel Atangana and Thierry Mbouza, of criminal defamation and sentenced
them to prison terms. Difana appeared in court and received a suspended
six-month prison sentence. The two reporters, who have been in hiding
for the past few months, were condemned in absentia to six months in prison
without parole.
The charges were brought by Pierre Simé, head of the National Union
of Professional Truckers, in response to an article about the union that
appeared in a November, 1998, issue of Dikalo. Several concurring
sources told CPJ that the information contained in the article was sent
to Dikalo in the form of a petition signed by 81 union members
who attacked what they described as rampant corruption and embezzlement
among union officials. The statement called the union "a phantom structure
led by Pierre Simé that helps expatriate truckers plunder Cameroon."
The Yaounde Court of First Instance found the three journalists guilty
of criminal defamation for disseminating "baseless accusations" that have
allegedly tarnished Mr. Simé's reputation. No charges were filed
against the 81 signatories of the petition.
With this ruling, seven journalists in Cameroon have now been sentenced
to prison for criminal defamation in the past 12 months. Most recently,
on April 3, a criminal court in the western Cameroonian town of Bafoussam
convicted Michel Eclador Pekoua, publisher of the private weekly Ouest
Echos, on one count of defamation and sentenced him to six months
in prison without parole. The verdict came six months after a state-owned
oil company, Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH),
accused Pekoua of defaming two company officials in an editorial that
ran in an August, 1999, edition of Ouest Echos.
Quoting a leaked SNH internal document, Pekoua alleged that SNH executive
director Adolphe Moduki had embezzled large sums out of the company's
budget, and had spent much of the stolen money on gifts for his lover,
Tenda Ekoka, an executive secretary at SNH. Although the facts in Pekoua's
article were never disputed, the journalist remains in prison in Bafoussam
as of today.
CPJ believes that civil libel statutes provide adequate recourse for people
who feel they have been defamed, and that no journalists should ever go
to jail for their work. We respectfully remind Your Excellency that "detention
as punishment for the expression of an opinion is one of the most reprehensible
means to enjoin silence, and as such constitutes a serious violation of
human rights," according to a July 14, 1992, declaration by the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Moreover, the Preamble to the amended 1996 Constitution affirms Cameroon's
commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 of
which stipulates that "everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and
expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference
and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media
and regardless of frontiers."
CPJ is gravely concerned that press freedom in Cameroon remains at the
mercy of a legal system that has repeatedly shown its hostility to independent
journalism. We urge Your Excellency to take all legal measures to ensure
that the charges against Celestin Biake Difana, Daniel Atangana, and Thierry
Mbouza are dismissed, that Michel Eclador Pekoua is immediately and unconditionally
released from prison, and that all journalists in Cameroon may carry out
their professional duties without judicial harassment.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
Send a letter to:
President Paul Biya
Palais de L'Unité
Yaounde, Cameroon
VIA FAX: 011.237.233.022