Global Conscience Initiative strongly condemns the sentencing to three years imprisonment of Lewis Medjo, Managing Editor of Cameroon’s weekly La Détente libre newspaper. Medjo, who was arrested in September, has been in custody since then and his case suffered many adjournments for “administrative reasons”. He was finally nailed, January 7, 2009, to a three-years jail term and fined three (3) million francs CFA. Global Conscience strongly posits that the sentencing of the journalist constitutes an abuse of the right to free speech and urges the Cameroon authorities to review the Medjo Case.

Global Conscience Chief Executive, Samba Churchill, who is also the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) focal point in Cameroon for journalists, said sentencing journalists to prisons terms on creates more problems and provides solution to any problems.

Mr. Samba said at a December 2008 workshop in Yaounde, Cameroon, organized by the ACHPR, Journalists from the Central African Subregion moved against the criminalization of libel.

“Sentencing journalists to jail terms because of their practice is a serious impediment to free speech as it creates fear in journalists”, Mr. Samba said. “We are urging governments to create an enabling environment for journalists and ease their access to information. When you hold back information from journalists how do you turn around and prosecute them for spreading false news?”

Global Conscience is calling on all journalists and media associations in Cameroon to take the sentencing of Medjo seriously and to find ways of ending the imprisonment of journalists.

Samba