WAN-IFRA pays tribute to Pius Njawé

Arrested 126 times during his 30-year career, Njawé became the youngest African editor at the age of 22 when he began publishing Le Messager newspaper. The publication grew to become the most popular in Cameroon.

A rare hero

"Pius was an authentic and truly rare hero of the struggle for press freedom in his own country and a fantastic supporter of campaigns worldwide, particularly in his beloved Africa, to protect and promote this basic human right," said Timothy Balding, director general of WAN-IFRA Global Affairs.

"His courage was simply astonishing: he was arrested and frequently jailed in Cameroon for revealing and contesting the abuses of the regime in power; even his family suffered, particularly when his late wife, pregnant, was brutalised by police when visiting him in prison and, as a consequence, lost their baby.

Loyal member of the Press Freedom Committee

"Not the least of his extraordinary achievements was to continue publishing - for three decades, an incredible feat in most of the continent - his newspaper under conditions which would have made almost all newspaper executives long renounce their calling. But as Pius, a loyal member of the Press Freedom Committee of the former World Association of Newspapers, once told me: 'The most stupid thing the government ever did was to send me to prison. That guaranteed one thing: that, paying this price, I would never give up the struggle against their repression of the free press'."

WAN-IFRA has extended its condolences to Njawé¹s family and to all those who have worked alongside him in the defence of the right to a free press in Cameroon and across the continent.