Abstract
On 17 January, Pius Njawe, editor-in-chief of the independent Cameroon weekly Le Messager, received a six-month suspended sentence for insulting members of the National Assembly. Deprived of his passport, he was unable to attend the conference on the press in Africa organised by Unesco and the Panos Institute in Paris at the end of the month. The following address was delivered in absentia to the gathering.