Journos fight for colleague
20/01/2005 23:32  - (SA)  

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US condemns Zim press laws Mugabe tightens media laws Journo held for taking pics AP journo held in Zim Huge support for jailed editor Journo jailed for libel

Paris - Media watchdog Reporters without Borders (RSF) condemned on Thursday the jailing of Cameroon journalist, Jules Koum Koum, for libel, saying he had performed a public duty in exposing wrongdoing.

Supporters in Yaounde said on Tuesday Koum Koum, editor of the bi-monthly Le Jeune Observateur, was sentenced on January 10, and immediately incarcerated at the New Bell central prison in Douala, the economic capital of the west African country.

A statement signed by six leading journalists said: "Our colleague's 'crime' was to have exposed, in an article published in April 2004 ... the shady dealing and creative accounting of insurance companies."

A Paris-based RSF said: "The sentencing of a journalist to a prison-term for libel marks a sharp setback for the freedom of the press in Cameroon."

"The publication of an article on the failings of certain businesses is not a crime, but a contribution to the duty to inform the public."

Cameroonian journalists have been demanding the decriminalisation of press-related offences for years.

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