CPJ calls for release of journalist detained in Cameroon

09 Décembre 2017

Banjul, Gambia, December  9 (Infosplusgabon) - The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called for the immediate release of journalist Patrice Nganang, who is detained in Cameroon, according to a statement obtained Saturday.

In a statement, the press freedom watchdog revealed that Cameroonian authorities detained  Nganang, a Cameroonian-American academic and columnist, as he attempted to fly to Zimbabwe from Douala on 6 December.

The detained journalist’s lawyer, Emmanuel Simh, told CPJ that Nganang was being held in Yaoundé on accusations of offending Cameroon’s president in a Facebook post.

Authorities confiscated the journalist's phone and he was not granted access to legal counsel until Friday, the statement noted.

"The detention of Patrice Nganang is an outrage and Cameroonian authorities must immediately release him without charge and allow him to travel," remarked CPJ Africa Program Coordinator, Angela Quintal, from South Africa.

"Cameroon seems intent on violating the right to freedom of expression to silence critical voices, including in the press."

The statement disclosed that Nganang's arrest came a day after he published a critical column in the France-based news magazine, Jeune Afrique, that criticized President Paul Biya's handling of unrest in Cameroon's Anglophone regions.

CPJ said Nganang, a professor at the U.S. Stony Brook University and contributing columnist for Jeune Afrique, visited the regions affected by protests.

FIN/INFOSPLUSGABON/OLM/GABON 2017

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