Press Freedom committee calls on Cameroonian authorities to release detained journalists
At least eight other journalists were imprisoned in Cameroon in connection with their work as of December 2020
CAPE TOWN, April 15 (ANA) – Cameroonian authorities should immediately release journalist Emmanuel Mbombog Mbog Matip and all other members of the press imprisoned for their work, a global organisation that promotes press freedom, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday.
Six armed men in plain clothes, on August 17, 2020 arrested Mbombog Mbog Matip, director of the privately owned CliMat Social newspaper that also posts political commentary on Facebook, at his home in Yaoundé, the capital, says privately owned CamerounWeb news website and a letter from the journalist that was published by local media in February.
Mbombog Mbog Matip was held at the state secretariat for defence (SED) until September 7, when he was brought before a military court judge, Misse Njone Jacques Baudouin, who charged him with “propagation of false news,” and ordered he be detained until March 7, 2021, according to a provisional detention order signed by Baudouin, which CPJ reviewed, and Alex Koko à Dang, the president of the National Union of Independent Journalists of Cameroon (SYNAJIC), a local press freedom group, and former editorial advisor of CliMat Social, who spoke with CPJ.
Following the court hearing, the journalist was transferred to the Kondengui Central Prison in Yaoundé. He remains in custody, Koko à Dang told CPJ that the March 7 deadline had passed without the journalist receiving any update regarding his case.
At least eight other journalists were imprisoned in Cameroon in connection with their work as of December 2020, according to CPJ research.
“Cameroonian authorities should immediately release journalist Emmanuel Mbombog Mbog Matip and cease the outrageous use of military courts to prosecute the press,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa programme coordinator.
“The fact that Cameroon remains one of the worst jailers of journalists in Africa is a grave indicator of the broader conditions for the media there.”
Koko à Dang further told CPJ that Mbombog Mbog Matip had primarily reported via his personal Facebook page, where he has about 5,000 followers, after CliMat Social halted publishing in 2019 due to financial difficulties. Numerous Facebook posts by Mbombog Mbog Matip from the months preceding his arrest, which CPJ reviewed, expressed support for Cameroonian President Paul Biya.
Many organisations around the world have been fighting against mistreatment and threatening of journalists in most African countries.
In November last year, Cameroon Association of English-Speaking Journalists (Camasej) urged the government to order an independent probe into Cameroonian journalist Samuel Wazizi’s death, after he died while in military custody.
Early last year, the French ambassador to Cameroon Christophe Guilhou said President Biya had confirmed an investigation would be opened into the death of Wazizi, but nothing had since been done, according to a Cameroonian news website Journal du Cameroun.
The 36-year-old Wazizi died in August 2019 but the information was only made public earlier in June 2020. He was arrested by police on August 3, 2019, in a suburb in the conflict-ridden South-West region of the country.
He was transferred to military custody on August 7, then ferried to the capital Yaoundé six days later, according to Cameroon’s military spokesperson, Colonel Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo.
Wazizi arrived in Yaoundé feeling feverish and died on August 17 due to an infection, the military said.
Local and international organisations called for an impartial probe, saying that the UN Security Council members should urge accountability for the death of the journalist.
The United States Mission to the UN also called for an independent investigation into Wazizi’s death and called attention to the conflict in Cameroon, which according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has displaced more than 600,000 people.
In July 2020, Cameroon’s military refused to hand over the body of Wazizi to his family and denied access to the body, saying it was sealed pending investigations into the cause of death.
This led to allegations by Cameroonian rights and media groups that there was indeed a cover-up in the death of the journalist.
In January 2020, an international organisation safeguarding the right to freedom of information, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on the authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to take firm measures to improve the safety of journalists, as they are often targeted by rebel groups.
In a statement it said journalists were exposed to threats and violence by armed groups in the east of the country.
Raka FM, a community radio station in Kazimia, in the eastern province of Sud-Kivu, was one of the latest targets.
Members reportedly belonging to the Mai-Mai rebel militia went to the station on the evening of January 12, looking for its director, Jacques Mulengwa. When they discovered he was not there, they promised to return.
The visit came just a few hours after Raka FM broadcasted a statement by the local army commander accusing the militia of attacking a nearby locality two days earlier.
Mulengwa told RSF that the day after the visit the militiamen sent him a SMS message accusing him of being paid by the army to undermine their reputation within the local community.
Mulengwa has stopped working at the radio station, as he fears for his life, according to the organisation.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by