Valéry Gottingar Kaya-Whorr/CPJ Guest Blogger
![The author (Courtesy Kaya-Whorr)](https://cpj.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Kaya-Whorr.jpg?w=230&h=190&crop=1)
Chad’s vibrant press shook off chains of the state
When Chad proclaimed independence on August 11, 1960, I was still attending primary school and had never heard of journalism. I listened only to music on the radio. But there was euphoria everywhere in Sarh, south of Chad where I lived, and we sang and danced to the frenzied rhythm of “independence tcha tcha tcha”…