A group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Cameroon has condemned what it observed as the politically motivated detention and suppression of human rights of journalists in the country.
Development Diaries reports that the American Bar Association Centre for Human Rights, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Freedom House made the observation six months after the abduction and killing of prominent Cameroonian journalist Martinez Zogo.
They made the call in a joint report for the 44th Session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group.
The joint submission on press freedom in Cameroon was released ahead of the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) later this year.
According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Cameroon is one of Africa’s most dangerous countries for journalists, who operate in a hostile and precarious environment.
RSF also noted that the level of impunity for those responsible for violence against journalists is still very high.
The NGOs highlighted that Cameroonian journalists are facing lethal threats and false legal charges as they pursue reporting in the midst of Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict.
This is according to a new report on press freedom and freedom of expression submitted to the United Nations by Freedom House, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and the American Bar Association’s Centre for Human Rights, with the support of Covington and Burling LLP.
The groups’ submission highlights that the killing, physical attacks, abduction, torture, and harassment of journalists by Cameroonian police, intelligence agencies, military, and non-state actors continue to have a severe chilling effect.
It also noted that several journalists have been forced into exile, two journalists have died in government custody under suspicious circumstances since 2010, and, most recently, prominent journalist Zogo was murdered in January 2023.
‘President Paul Biya’s government routinely claims that the plethora of media outlets in the country proves that the right to media freedom is enjoyed in Cameroon, but the reality is the polar opposite as laid bare in this joint report’, CPJ’s Africa Programme Coordinator, Angela Quintal, said.
‘The arbitrary detention of journalists labeled terrorists, the killings with impunity and the widespread censorship tactics fostered by the government, must be reversed for democracy to overcome Cameroon’s protracted conflict’.
The arbitrary imprisonment of journalists coupled with incommunicado and lengthy pre-trial detention has made Cameroon the second worst jailer of journalists in sub-Saharan Africa after Eritrea.
‘The politically motivated detention of journalists in Cameroon is of serious concern’, Director of Freedom House’s Political Prisoners Initiative, Margaux Ewen, said.
‘Through this submission, we remind Cameroon of its obligations under domestic and international law. We also show solidarity with the five journalists currently behind bars, who will not be forgotten’.
Cameroon is rated ‘Not Free’ in Freedom House’s Freedom in the World 2023 report, scoring 15 out of a possible 100.
Development Diaries calls on the Cameroonian government to investigate and bring an end to the killing, physical attacks, abduction, torture, and harassment of journalists by security operatives.
Source: CPJ
