<p>The mutilated body of a prominent Cameroonian journalist was found on Sunday near the capital Yaounde five days after he was abducted by unidentified assailants, the press union and a colleague said on Sunday.</p>.<p>Media advocates described Martinez Zogo's disappearance and death as a further sign of the perils of reporting in the African country.</p>.<p>Zogo, the director of private radio station Amplitude FM, was kidnapped on January 17 by unknown assailants after trying to enter a police station to escape his attackers, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said.</p>.<p>Zogo had recently been talking on air about a case of alleged embezzlement involving a media outlet with government connections, RSF said.</p>.<p>"Cameroonian media has just lost one of its members, a victim of hatred and barbarism," Cameroon's journalists' trade union said in a statement. "Where is the freedom of the press, freedom of opinion and freedom of expression in Cameroon when working in the media now entails a mortal risk?"</p>.<p>His colleague, Charlie Amie Tchouemou, editor-in-chief of Amplitude FM, confirmed Zogo's death and his abduction. The police and the government did not respond to calls for comment.</p>.<p>The incident is the latest in a string of attacks against journalists in Cameroon, which has a vibrant press and which is ruled by President Paul Biya, who has a decades-long record of repressing opposition.</p>.<p>Cameroon is one of many countries across the continent, from Burkina Faso to Ethiopia to Equatorial Guinea, where journalists complain that media freedoms are under threat from authoritarian governments.</p>.<p>"Although Cameroon has one of the richest media landscapes in Africa, it is one of the continent's most dangerous countries for journalists, who operate in a hostile and precarious environment," RSF says in its Cameroon country profile.</p>.<p>Radio France Internationale reporter Ahmed Abba was arrested in July 2015 and imprisoned for two years on terrorism charges that rights groups denounced as a sham. Outspoken reporter Paul Chouta, who worked for private news website Cameroon Web, was beaten and stabbed by unknown attackers in 2019.</p>
<p>The mutilated body of a prominent Cameroonian journalist was found on Sunday near the capital Yaounde five days after he was abducted by unidentified assailants, the press union and a colleague said on Sunday.</p>.<p>Media advocates described Martinez Zogo's disappearance and death as a further sign of the perils of reporting in the African country.</p>.<p>Zogo, the director of private radio station Amplitude FM, was kidnapped on January 17 by unknown assailants after trying to enter a police station to escape his attackers, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said.</p>.<p>Zogo had recently been talking on air about a case of alleged embezzlement involving a media outlet with government connections, RSF said.</p>.<p>"Cameroonian media has just lost one of its members, a victim of hatred and barbarism," Cameroon's journalists' trade union said in a statement. "Where is the freedom of the press, freedom of opinion and freedom of expression in Cameroon when working in the media now entails a mortal risk?"</p>.<p>His colleague, Charlie Amie Tchouemou, editor-in-chief of Amplitude FM, confirmed Zogo's death and his abduction. The police and the government did not respond to calls for comment.</p>.<p>The incident is the latest in a string of attacks against journalists in Cameroon, which has a vibrant press and which is ruled by President Paul Biya, who has a decades-long record of repressing opposition.</p>.<p>Cameroon is one of many countries across the continent, from Burkina Faso to Ethiopia to Equatorial Guinea, where journalists complain that media freedoms are under threat from authoritarian governments.</p>.<p>"Although Cameroon has one of the richest media landscapes in Africa, it is one of the continent's most dangerous countries for journalists, who operate in a hostile and precarious environment," RSF says in its Cameroon country profile.</p>.<p>Radio France Internationale reporter Ahmed Abba was arrested in July 2015 and imprisoned for two years on terrorism charges that rights groups denounced as a sham. Outspoken reporter Paul Chouta, who worked for private news website Cameroon Web, was beaten and stabbed by unknown attackers in 2019.</p>