Committee to Protect Journalists calls for probe into attack on Paul Chouta

The Committee to Protect Journalist, CPJ has called on Cameroonian authorities to investigate Wednesday’s attack on web journalist, Paul Chouta.

Chouta was abducted from a relaxation spot in the Damas neighborhood in Yaounde. He was whisked off to Nsimalen where he was beaten to near-death.

Reacting to the incident, CPJ’s Africa Program coordinator, Angela Quintal said the “Cameroonian police must thoroughly investigate the latest attack on Paul Chouta, a journalist and outspoken critic of the government, and bring swift justice to those responsible”.

The CPJ said it had been told by Chouta he was interviewed at the hospital by police and was told that a knife had been found where he was attacked.

Police are also reported to have collected video footage from the snack bar where Chouta was abducted.

With the assailants yet to be identified, the CPJ believes it is essential for security forces to act now, to avoid passing across a wrong message by their silence.

“Failure to act,” warned Angela Quintal, “will reinforce perceptions that impunity for crimes against journalists is the order of the day in Cameroon and that journalists like Paul Chouta are simply not safe in their own country.”

Wednesday’s attack adds as another bump on Chouta’s journalism ride. In February he was attacked outside his home, a move believed to have been politically motivated. Months later he was arrested and spent two years at the Kondengui Prison in Yaounde.