Carlos Ketohou - Togolese journalist in exile in Luxembourg

By Misch Pautsch Switch to French for original article

3 May is International Press Freedom Day. Journalism remains a dangerous profession in many countries. This is the case of Carlos Komlanvi Ketohou, from Togo, who was thrown into a cell for five days and tortured without charge in December 2020 for covering the news. He fled to Luxembourg, but never quite made it.

Stolen gold cutlery – the last straw. After two decades of critical reporting on politics in Togo, a "simple" article on the theft of gold cutlery by female ministers at an event led Carlos Ketohou to be hunted down by the police, arrested and thrown into a cell for five nights, tortured without being charged. In 2025, Togo ranked 121st in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, a further fall from its already inglorious 113th place the previous year, and 70th before that. The situation has not improved since then, as Ketohou reports.

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