Wednesday January 19, 2005 11:21 - (SA)

YAOUNDE - A Cameroonian journalist, Jules Koum Koum, has been sentenced to six months in jail for defamation, six fellow newsmen said in a statement.

Koum Koum, editor of the bimonthly Le Jeune Observateur, was sentenced on January 10 and immediately incarcerated at the New Bell central prison in Douala, the economic capital of the west African country, said the six, who have set up a support committee for Koum Koum.

"Our colleague's 'crime' was to have exposed, in an article published in April 2004... the shady dealing and creative accounting of insurance companies," the statement said.

The newsmen, who include the editor of the weekly Aurore Plus, Michel Michaut Moussala, and of the bi-weekly Le Front, Peter William Mandio, said depriving a journalist of freedom was an "aberration" that "tarnishes the country's image."

Cameroonian journalists have been demanding the decriminalisation of press-related offences for years.

AFP

http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/zones/sundaytimesNEW/basket6st/basket6st1106126518.aspx

Thanks for the info..

So was it defamation or are they hiding something? easiest way to hide anything is jail the person who exposes them for defamation.