The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the government of Cameroon to ensure a thorough investigation into the killing of a leading investigative journalist, Martinez Zogo, who was found dead on 22 January.
Development Diaries reports that the body of the journalist and director of the radio station Amplitude FM was found in Soa, a suburb of the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé.
According to local media, Zogo’s body showed signs consistent with severe torture, including a broken foot, and several fingers missing and appeared to have received multiple electric shocks.
This report corroborated the statement issued by the Cameroonian authorities which stated that Zogo had ‘endured significant bodily harm’.
‘Martinez Zogo was a journalist who took great risks to expose the truth about corruption’, HRW Central Africa Director, Lewis Mudge, said.
‘His heinous killing sends a chilling message to all other journalists in Cameroon. Cameroonian authorities should conduct a prompt and impartial investigation so that Zogo’s killers can be brought to justice’.
Zogo was the host of a popular daily radio programme, ‘Embouteillage’ (traffic jam), during which he regularly discussed corruption cases, at times accusing well-known people by name.
In the weeks before he was killed, Zogo spoke on the radio about his work investigating embezzlement in public institutions and said he would name people involved.
‘Martinez Zogo’s killing should not be swept under the carpet’, Mudge said.
‘Cameroonian authorities should live up to the government’s own words and actively protect journalists, who risk their lives to do their work, and hold Zogo’s killers – and all others who intimidate media professionals – to account’.
Zogo’s murder has been met with widespread condemnation, in and outside of Cameroon.
Although Cameroon has one of the richest media landscapes in Africa, the country’s recent score of 49.1 in the Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders shows it is one of the continent’s most dangerous countries for journalists.
Photo: HRW
