Attack on The Guardian Post: The press can't be intimidated.



For more than two decades of publication, The Guardian Post daily newspaper has thrived to live by the highest standards of professional ethics and within the law which at times is an ass.

 

Playing its role of neutrality in reporting and taking sides with the truth in its editorials, it has been haunted by some and appreciated by hundreds of thousands who stand with justice, truth and fair play.

On Wednesday as many as four heavily armed Gendarme officers in mufti zoomed in at The Guardian Post head office in Yaounde, to arrest the harmless Publisher/Editor-In-Chief, Ngah Christian Mbipgo.

They took him at about 10:30 a.m. to the Central Research Unit at the State Defense Secretariat (Secrétariat d’État à la défense), SED; where he was kept incommunicado, without food or water, for several hours.

What was his crime to deploy that intimidating number of security officials with the soaring heinous crime rate across the country that is overwhelming the defence and security apparatus?

What was the atrocious felony he was suspected of having committed to be meted such dehumanising treatment? The security officers divulged that the arrest was in connection to a faked cover page of The Guardian Post of Tuesday November 7, 2023; which circulated on several social media platforms.

But the offending cover page related to the massacre in Egbekaw village, Mamfe Central Subdivision, Manyu Division of the South West Region, was a cheap forgery.

It wasn't the authentic edition of the daily which was in circulation in Yaounde and across the globe on our official cover pages posted on Facebook and The Guardian Post Daily (@guardian_post) on X, formerly Twitter.

The powers that be within the security mechanism did not need to roll any crystal ball or investigation to know that what pricked their bitter bile was faked by separatist social media warriors who have always wanted our heads.

It is not the first time the scammers using the anonymity of the internet hide behind its dark cloak to doctor and recreate fake documents and pictures to serve their agenda of separation.

It wasn't also the first time front pages of The Guardian Post were forged and flashed on the social media. 

Time and again, we have marked them as FAKED, when we stumbled on them in the social media. And it has not always been easy detecting all of them since the devilish phenomenon started at the outbreak of the conflict in the North West and South West Regions, in 2016.

The question some concerned critics have asked is why is it always The Guardian Post, that is smeared with such separatist mire?

As the Publisher said some four years ago, which is still valid today as at the time: "The separatists know very well that The Guardian Post is the most credible, most influential and widely read English language newspaper in Cameroon".

In the situation, they know that telling their lies with fake covers of the newspaper will give them credence. Secondly, since they are not comfortable with our middle-of-the-road editorial policy on the more than six-year crisis in the two English-speaking Regions, they have resorted to mutilating the cover pages of The Guardian Post, and in the process, planting fake stories. 

It is not only the separatists who have not been at ease with the editorial policy of the authoritative daily. 

Like separatists, some government apologists often indict The Guardian Post, falsely, of trying to incite Anglophones against government in its reportage and commentaries on the conflict!

Aside the regular threats that come from several quarters regarding the leading English language daily newspaper's coverage of the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, The Guardian Post has systematically been blacklisted by some ministries and government institutions in their placement of advertising.

The Guardian Post has since the conflict in the North West and South West Regions, been between the devil and the deep blue sea. 

We remain intimidated on the side of truth and justice. We cannot be muzzled into asphyxiation by arrests and detentions that are not within the ambit of the law. 

Not even the manufacture of three fake cover pages of The Guardian Post per day, will push us to change our editorial policy on the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, to suit the whims and caprices of Ambazonia independence struggle day-dreamers and hoodlums who are masquerading as Anglophone freedom fighters.

The Guardian Post, like all other credible media organs, has been at the fore of the promotion of democracy and the rule of law in Cameroon. 

But it should not be mistaken for a government propaganda machinery, nor that of separatists.

We make bold to say that is the duty and responsibility of any civilised government to detect and punish perpetrators hiding behind computer keyboards to commit cybercrimes like they have been doing by publishing fake cover pages of The Guardian Post.

For over five years, The Guardian Post has been a victim of the phenomenon of separatists faking its front covers for their devilish intentions. 

It beats everyone’s imagination that instead of going after perpetrators of such acts that clearly tarnish the newspaper’s reputation and credibility, security forces, rather, are taking interest in cracking down on the newspaper’s Publisher. 

Like The Guardian Post Publisher told investigators at the SED without blinking, it is wrong, to victimise a victim.  

We hope such an unwarranted assault on The Guardian Post Publisher or any other journalist for that matter, won't repeat itself, although it has emboldened our resolve to live with truth and justice which no intimidation can suppress. 

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For more than two decades of publication, The Guardian Post daily newspaper has thrived to live by the highest standards of professional ethics and within the law which at times is an ass.

Playing its role of neutrality in reporting and taking sides with the truth in its editorials, it has been haunted by some and appreciated by hundreds of thousands who stand with justice, truth and fair play.

On Wednesday as many as four heavily armed Gendarme officers in mufti zoomed in at The Guardian Post head office in Yaounde, to arrest the harmless Publisher/Editor-In-Chief, Ngah Christian Mbipgo.

They took him at about 10:30 a.m. to the Central Research Unit at the State Defense Secretariat (Secrétariat d’État à la défense), SED; where he was kept incommunicado, without food or water, for several hours.

What was his crime to deploy that intimidating number of security officials with the soaring heinous crime rate across the country that is overwhelming the defence and security apparatus?

What was the atrocious felony he was suspected of having committed to be meted such dehumanising treatment? The security officers divulged that the arrest was in connection to a faked cover page of The Guardian Post of Tuesday November 7, 2023; which circulated on several social media platforms.

But the offending cover page related to the massacre in Egbekaw village, Mamfe Central Subdivision, Manyu Division of the South West Region, was a cheap forgery.

It wasn't the authentic edition of the daily which was in circulation in Yaounde and across the globe on our official cover pages posted on Facebook and The Guardian Post Daily (@guardian_post) on X, formerly Twitter.

The powers that be within the security mechanism did not need to roll any crystal ball or investigation to know that what pricked their bitter bile was faked by separatist social media warriors who have always wanted our heads.

It is not the first time the scammers using the anonymity of the internet hide behind its dark cloak to doctor and recreate fake documents and pictures to serve their agenda of separation.

It wasn't also the first time front pages of The Guardian Post were forged and flashed on the social media. 

Time and again, we have marked them as FAKED, when we stumbled on them in the social media. And it has not always been easy detecting all of them since the devilish phenomenon started at the outbreak of the conflict in the North West and South West Regions, in 2016.

The question some concerned critics have asked is why is it always The Guardian Post, that is smeared with such separatist mire?

As the Publisher said some four years ago, which is still valid today as at the time: "The separatists know very well that The Guardian Post is the most credible, most influential and widely read English language newspaper in Cameroon".

In the situation, they know that telling their lies with fake covers of the newspaper will give them credence. Secondly, since they are not comfortable with our middle-of-the-road editorial policy on the more than six-year crisis in the two English-speaking Regions, they have resorted to mutilating the cover pages of The Guardian Post, and in the process, planting fake stories. 

It is not only the separatists who have not been at ease with the editorial policy of the authoritative daily. 

Like separatists, some government apologists often indict The Guardian Post, falsely, of trying to incite Anglophones against government in its reportage and commentaries on the conflict!

Aside the regular threats that come from several quarters regarding the leading English language daily newspaper's coverage of the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, The Guardian Post has systematically been blacklisted by some ministries and government institutions in their placement of advertising.

The Guardian Post has since the conflict in the North West and South West Regions, been between the devil and the deep blue sea. 

We remain intimidated on the side of truth and justice. We cannot be muzzled into asphyxiation by arrests and detentions that are not within the ambit of the law. 

Not even the manufacture of three fake cover pages of The Guardian Post per day, will push us to change our editorial policy on the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, to suit the whims and caprices of Ambazonia independence struggle day-dreamers and hoodlums who are masquerading as Anglophone freedom fighters.

The Guardian Post, like all other credible media organs, has been at the fore of the promotion of democracy and the rule of law in Cameroon. 

But it should not be mistaken for a government propaganda machinery, nor that of separatists.

We make bold to say that is the duty and responsibility of any civilised government to detect and punish perpetrators hiding behind computer keyboards to commit cybercrimes like they have been doing by publishing fake cover pages of The Guardian Post.

For over five years, The Guardian Post has been a victim of the phenomenon of separatists faking its front covers for their devilish intentions. 

It beats everyone’s imagination that instead of going after perpetrators of such acts that clearly tarnish the newspaper’s reputation and credibility, security forces, rather, are taking interest in cracking down on the newspaper’s Publisher. 

Like The Guardian Post Publisher told investigators at the SED without blinking, it is wrong, to victimise a victim.  

We hope such an unwarranted assault on The Guardian Post Publisher or any other journalist for that matter, won't repeat itself, although it has emboldened our resolve to live with truth and justice which no intimidation can suppress. 

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