simon INOU studied sociology in Douala and journalism in Vienna. From 1992 to 1995, he was co-founder and editor of Le Messager des Jeunes, Cameroon’s first youth newspaper. He fled to Austria for political and journalistic reasons, where he was granted asylum.
INOU served as editor-in-chief of Radio Afrika International in Vienna (1998–2005), and co-founded and has led Afrikanet.info, now blackaustria.info, from 2003 to the present. He coordinated various (media) projects (including for Wiener Zeitung and Die Presse), organized the Media.Fair.Migration (2008–2015), and in 2007 founded M-MEDIA, an association for the promotion of intercultural media work. He also contributed to projects such as Discrimination-Free Schoolbooks for Austria and Africans in the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, as well as initiatives addressing the restitution of African cultural artifacts. Since 2024, he has organized the Austrian Anti-Racism Days, which begin with the Anti-Racism Fair.
simon INOU has received several national and international awards. Since 2008, he has held the Federal Badge of Honor for Intercultural Dialogue from the Austrian Ministry of Education, and since 2022, together with Vanessa Spanbauer, has been a recipient of the Austrian Ari Rath Prize for Critical Journalism.
Since 2016, he has been with Radio ORANGE 94.0, first as training coordinator and, since January 2023, as head of the Public Affairs & Diversity department.