Exiled Cameroon journalist Charles Atangana has had his deportation case adjourned for three months.

A lively crowd of supporters gathered today outside the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand, central London with banners and placards. Charles’s case was adjourned for 12 weeks to allow submissions to be heard.

Charles told his supporters: “The legal support has been great and we send out thanks to all of my supporters. Until the next hearing I am still in limbo and I will keep fighting to stay.”

The NUJ’s deputy general secretary Michelle Stanistreet told the supporters that the union was delighted the case was adjourned and that it would allow Charles and his supporters more time to put forward evidence about why he should not be deported back to Cameroon, where he was tortured and fled.

Messages of support were read out from Charles’s former colleagues and supporters from when he was based in Scotland including Pete Murray, NUJ president; the Scottish TUC and Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees. Head of the NUJ’s parliamentary group, John McDonnell, also sent a message of support.

Former Labour Party deputy prime minister Harriet Harman has also lent her support. She has written to the home secretary Theresa May about the case detailing the concerns of her constituents who are also supporters of Charles.

Charles will speaking about his case at the NUJ Left meeting this Saturday, 1.30pm to 4.30pm, at the Cock Tavern, Phoenix Road, London NW1 1HB between Euston and St Pancras stations. All NUJ members welcome, you can join on the door.

More on Charles’s case

The largely black audience at the NUJ’s annual Claudia Jones memorial lecture last night were urged to join trade unions and community groups to resist the “tsunami coming towards us” in the form of government cuts.
Guest speaker Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya said that different ethnic minority groups had been divided by an obsession with cultural diversity and called for unity in the face of the cuts.

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Waltham Forest Trades Council in East London has backed exiled journalist Charles Atangana and his struggle against deportation. Charles addressed a meeting of Waltham Forest unions last night in the run-up to his case being heard at the Royal Courts on the Strand this Thursday.

There will be a protest in support of Charles from 9.30am onwards at the courts, and a solidarity picket in Manchester outside the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal offices, Moseley Street, Manchester, M1 4AH.

Charles will also be speaking at the NUJ Left meeting on Saturday afternoon in central London.

Below is the press release from Waltham Forest Trades Council in support for Charles.

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An NUJ member fighting deportation will tell his story to east London trades unionists tonight – just two days before his case goes before a High Court judge.
Investigative journalist Charles Atangana, who fled to the UK six years ago after being detained and beaten in Cameroon, is seeking a judicial review of the Home Office decision to send him back.

Journalists and other trade unionists are being urged to demonstrate in his support at 9.45am this Thursday, October 7, at the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London, WC2A 2LL.

There will also be a solidarity vigil for Charles on the same day in Manchester, outside the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in Moseley Street, Manchester, at 12 (Thursday, October 7th – the day of Charles’ High Court case.)

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Pete Murray, NUJ President and BBC rep, will be speaking on the BBC dispute this Saturday in London.

NUJ members at the BBC voted nine to one recently to strike over the BBC’s attack on their pensions. They have been joined by Bectu and Unite members in a concerted campaign against the proposals. The threat of strike action forced the BBC into making a last-ditch offer last Friday, which the three unions have taken back to their members. Pete will be updating the meeting on the latest.

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Staff at the BBC are striking on the 5 and 6 October over threats to their pensions. The national strike will take BBC’s coverage of the Tory Party conference off the airwaves. There will also be two-days of strikes later this month.

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NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear (second from left) leads a delegation to the Ukrainian Embassy, London, in 2008 on the anniversary of the murder of journalist Gyorgy Gongadze. (Marc Vallée, 2008)

Campaigners in the UK will mark the 10th anniversary of the abduction and be-heading of Ukrainian internet journalist Gyorgy Gongadze this week by demanding answers about the investigation into his death.

A delegation from the National Union of Journalists will visit the Ukrainian embassy at 60 Holland Park, London, W11 3SJ, at 11am on Thursday September 16.

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NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear addresses supporters of Charles at bail hearing (Keith Sellick)

Journalist Charles Atangana, who is being threatened with deportation back to Cameroon, won his bail hearing yesterday. Charles was being held in Dover Immigration Removal Centre while his case was being heard in a tribunal in central London.

A lively band of supporters, including NUJ and Unison members, were outside the tribunal in support of Charles. The news arrived of him winning bail in the afternoon. Now the campaign has won its first step but there is still a long way to go for Charles to win his asylum case.

Charles was arrested and tortured in Cameroon, a country where journalists and political activists who oppose the government are ill-treated and sometimes killed. he fled to the UK and lived in Scotland before being detained and threatened with deportation.

More on the campaign at the NUJ website

1. NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear has a comment is free piece in the Guardian in support for Charles and outlining the case (see post below for more details).

   And the TUC is also supporting  Charles, pointing out that unions must fight for freedom of expression as it is central to the freedom to organise. And that fight must be international.

Charles Atangana is a journalist who fled Cameroon after death threats. He has lived and worked in this country for many years but is now facing deportation back to Cameroon. He is being held in Dover Immigration Removal Centre.

The NUJ is actively supporting Charles and is campaigning for him to be given indefinite leave to remain in the UK (he lives and works in Scotland)

Tomorrow he has a bail hearing in London and the NUJ will be present supporting him.

Protest on Thursday 12th August at 14.00 in London, Taylor House,  88 Rosebery Avenue, case number EC1R 4QU.

Read here for more about the campaign and the concerns over safety of journalists and human rights activists in Cameroon