NOVEMBER 27, 2006
Posted: December 29, 2006
Christopher Andu Ezieh, The Heron
ATTACKED
Police in the southwestern town of Buea dragged Ezieh, publisher of the private English-language weekly, from his home and subjected him to a brutal beating. Local journalists linked the attack to his newspaper’s critical coverage of the police response to student protests at Buea University.
Ezieh told CPJ that he was carried by four police officers to the nearby campus of Buea University and beaten unconscious by about a dozen officers. The officers shouted threats linked to his reporting, he said. Earlier in November, Ezieh’s paper had published an article criticizing police reaction to the student protests, according to local journalists. Police had killed two students during riots over alleged admission irregularities, according to local and international news reports.
Ezieh was hospitalized for a week following the attack. The Cameroon National Journalists Union condemned the attack.