00:00 There are lots of young people who are interested in becoming you, like you.
00:05 I mean exposing corruption in their countries.
00:07 But there are obviously a lot of challenges.
00:10 Talk to them about some of the risks that investigative journalism,
00:16 undercover investigative journalism faces.
00:19 Nobody should think that coming into journalism is a bed of roses.
00:24 It is not.
00:26 You are going to be attacked.
00:28 You are going to be sued.
00:29 In the football scandal, I was sued 66 times.
00:34 But here is the trick.
00:35 If you stick to hardcore evidence, no matter the suit,
00:40 no matter the number of people who sue you, truth will stand.
00:45 It's all up to making sure that you check your security very well.
00:50 You don't become trigger happy in just talking and mentioning things that you do.
00:58 You ensure that you follow very simple techniques that I can't explain in this interview.
01:03 But it is difficult, but there is a way of surviving it.
01:08 And I think that African youth has that capacity to survive the storm.
01:14 In any case, if we don't solve our problems, who is going to solve it?
01:17 Are we expecting German journalists to fly into our country to help us solve it?
01:21 Certainly not.
01:23 Across the continent, there have been several journalists who have been abducted,
01:26 who have been killed.
01:27 Would you still encourage the young people to get into this space where people are being killed
01:32 and you have to hide your face constantly because people are coming at you?
01:35 Certainly.
01:37 See, we cannot take the freedom of the press for granted.
01:43 And the fact that you have your freedoms does not mean that you should go to sleep.
01:48 That is what we ought to be reminded of as journalists.
01:54 You see, when we become complacent and we think that the freedom we are enjoying was
01:59 delivered to us on a silver platter, that's when we begin to suffer.
02:02 How do we rally ourselves together when our brother is under attack?
02:06 Because if you don't shout today, tomorrow is coming to you.
02:12 The Whistleblowers and Journalists Safety International Center, what is that all about?
02:18 Well, WatchSick, Whistleblowers and Journalists Safety International,
02:22 is aimed at housing African journalists who, in the face of trouble, have nowhere to go to.
02:29 You see, in view of the role I play on the continent, many journalists who face persecution
02:37 are the first point of call.
02:39 And I've been hosting them for the past 10 years now.
02:43 So this time, I decided I want to officialize it so that I can have a permanent shelter
02:48 where these people will come and take some respite when they are under attack.
02:53 And you recently also embarked on a project, the Arizona Project in Cameroon,
02:57 where you are picking up on the story that was covered by a journalist who was murdered.
03:03 Do you care to share more on that?
03:05 The Arizona Project is our colleague, Martinez.
03:09 Now, Martinez is a colleague.
03:10 The way we are sitting here and talking, that's how I talk to him.
03:13 We got up one morning, he was shot dead.
03:16 Those who come after journalists should know that the fact that you've taken down one journalist
03:21 does not mean that we are sitting down.
03:24 Now, we've managed to come together, we've managed to look for resources
03:28 so that if you killed anybody, it doesn't matter where, we will put ourselves together.
03:33 I lead that Arizona Project, and I can tell you, it's very effective.
03:38 And apart from mine, there are several other journalists across the world
03:42 who are also keen in helping exposing the bad deeds of people who killed journalists.
Comments