Paul Chouta has announced that he has left Cameroon for Germany for studies and for his safety.
The journalist revealed that Reporters Without Borders awarded him a Scholarship to study in Germany as a means to escape from a possible arrest or death like other journalists such as Martinez Zogo.
Chouta is arguably one of the most persecuted and harassed journalists in Cameroon in recent times.
In February 2019, Chouta was attacked outside his home following political coverage. Four months later, he was arrested on trumped-up charges which critics said were politically motivated. Chouta, a reporter for the Cameroon Web media source and a whistle-blower critical of the government, was the target of a defamation and fake news complaint filed by novelist Calixthe Belaya.
After being jailed in Cameroon for two years awaiting a trial judgment, journalist Paul Chouta was condemned to 23 months in prison and compelled to pay several million CFA francs in fines and damages.
After his release, the threats and attacks continued. On the evening of March 9, 2022, Chouta was watching the UEFA Champions League football match with friends in a snack bar in the Damas district of the capital Yaoundé when three unidentified men in a green pick-up truck abducted him, drove him to the outskirts of the city and viciously kicked and beat him with stones, bricks, a baton, and a whip.
The whistle-blower and promoter of the Facebook page TGV DE L’INFO, an online media broadcast platform was also listed among the journalists that were to be killed with Martinez Zogo. The list was made public on social media after Zogo was murdered in January 2023.
