Press freedom: The dark side of journalism in Cameroon.

As the country joins the rest of the world to commemorate the 31st edition of World Press Freedom Day, WPFD, today May 3, the tides are not the same. 

Even with the global theme for this year: “A press for the planet: Journalism in the face of the environmental crisis”, The Guardian Post, for purposes of context, rather looks deep into the horrors that have made journalism in Cameroon, a near no-go zone in recent times.

The planet, true to scientific knowledge, is facing challenges, but the constraints facing journalism in Cameroon, most media practitioners have attested, calls for an all-out action to review issues around the profession in Cameroon. 

Media practitioners in the country say, one of the teething issues that has not been handled, albeit extensively, is that of the security of journalists exercising in Cameroon.

Beyond the narrative of the existence of hundreds of newspapers, community radio stations and scores of television stations, which many, especially government apologists, have been quick at signaling is a friendly environment for the press, there is a vault horror. 

Oftentimes, stakeholders have stayed away from touching the thorny side of the safety of journalists in Cameroon.

In the Cameroonian locale, aside the beautiful reports on television and radio sets, newspaper publications and online reports, most media professionals go through hell, to perform the daunting duties of educating, entertaining and informing the public. 

How do we explain that as a budding democracy that government claims   Cameroon is, journalists are still arbitrarily arrested, thrown in to jail, and others disappear under questionable circumstances?

For those with a reality of the situation on ground, the journalism climate in Cameroon is hostile. From the entrepreneurial makeup of the industry, to the laws governing the profession and social security, most media practitioners in Cameroon have been to the abyss and back severally. Others have paid the ultimate price in line of duty.

Nerve-cracking dark episodes 

Aside the wind of change of the 90s that triggered some confrontations with authorities, Cameroon, decades down the line, still has recurrent dark episodes that put its press freedom index in the red. 

Among these are journalists who have died under painful circumstances, yet, no exhaustive investigations have been done to clear the air. 

In most cases, no one, including even employers who fail to put in place basic services for employees, are never questioned. It is a mixed of journalists and other media workers often caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

 It is common to hear that journalists are arrested, even before investigations into a matter commences. This is the case of the Publisher/Editor-In-Chief of The Guardian Post, Ngah Christian Mbipgo, who was arrested in November 2023, over a fake front page of the newspaper. Till date, no one has been held responsible for his arrest and detention at the State Secretariat for Defence, SED, for more than 12 hours.

Killed in line of duty

Today, May 3, 2024, will mark exactly one year since Jacquinot Moulong, correspondent of Douala-based Equinoxe television for the Moungo Division, perished in a road accident in Bangem, Kupe-Muanenguba Division of the South West Region. He was on duty when he met his untimely demise.

While the Cameroonian media was still mourning the demise of Moulong, horror struck Bamenda, in the North West Region, around 9 p.m, on Sunday May 2023. 

Then, gunmen, suspected to be Ambazonia fighters, shot to death Anye Nde Nsoh, North West correspondent of The Advocate newspaper. 

On another front, there are media professionals who have been killed in line of duty, under shuddering circumstances. 

This is the case with Becky Njeme Iyabo, who died alongside security operatives in Momo Division on January 5, 2021.

The vehicle in which she was, came across a land mine, suspected to have been planted by Ambazonia fighters. Njeme was Momo Divisional Delegate of Communication.

Martinez Zogo: Assignation of shame, inhumanity 

Another dark episode in the history of journalism practice in Cameroon, is the abduction and later killing of journalist, Arseme Salomon Mbani Zogo, popularly known as Martinez Zogo. 

He went missing on January 17, 2023, but his lifeless body was found five days after, at the Ebogo vicinity in Soa, sparking national and international outrage.

Martinez Zogo had become household name on Yaounde-based Amplitude FM, where he denounced issues related to corruption, and influence-peddling in the use of public funds. 

His killing, under perhaps the most gruesome circumstances, is what the judiciary is on course to establish responsibility. Even with the Yaounde Military Tribunal already hearing the case involving high profile public security officials and private individuals, the episodes that claimed his live, it is being said, is a testimony of the hostile environment in which journalists in Cameroon practice.

Zogo associate killed under questionable circumstances 

While fright had gripped the nation over the bastardly killing of Martinez Zogo, those seeking for the lives of journalists seemed undeterred. 

On February 3, a few weeks after Zogo’s death was confirmed, one of his associates, Jean Jacques Ola Bébé, was found dead in the Mimbouman neighbourhood of Yaounde. 

Ola was also a priest of the Orthodox Catholic Church. He too had reportedly taken interest in calling out regime heavyweights over use of certain sensitive budget lines. Unlike Zogo, Ola Bebe’s suspicious killing received little or no attention.                      

Samuel Wazizi’s death: Unanswered questions five years on

Also in the Pandora box of media offences that have painted Cameroon as a hostile environment for journalism practice, is the case of the late Samuel Wazizi, Pidgin news broadcaster at the Buea-based Chillen Music Television, CMTV.

 Officers of the 31st Military Infantry Battalion in the South West Region, are said to have arrested Wazizi, on Agust 2, 2019, on accusations of working with separatists.

Wazizi was held incommunicado for several months. Not even a statement was issued by authorities about his whereabouts. His fate became known after then news anchor at Douala-based Equinoxe TV, Cedrick Noufele, announced on Tuesday June 2020, that Wazizi was no longer alive!

“After the incommunicado detention of this journalist and the total absence of news, Equinoxe TV reveals exclusively that Samuel Wazizi is dead. According to sources close to the military high command, following his arrest in Buea, he suffered abuse to an extent that his state of health deteriorated,” Noufele told the world.

It was a declaration that provoked reactions from across the board. Journalists and lawyers alongside, civil society actors, joined the fray, asking questions and demanding for his corpse. 

Till date, nothing concrete has been said about the exact circumstances surrounding his death. The Wazizi case, till date, remains a dark episode in the history of journalism, press freedom and human rights in Cameroon.

Unfulfilled promises to diplomats?

After an audience with the Head of State, on June 5, 2020, then French Ambassador to Cameroon, Christian Guilhou, told reporters that President Biya had promised to ensure extensive investigations into the Wazizi affair.

Within the same period, the Director General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, Udrey Azoulay, had called on authorities to shed light on circumstances of Wazizi’s death in custody.

She had said: “I am seriously concerned by the circumstances surrounding the death of Samuel Wazizi. I call on the authorities to shed light on the events leading to his disappearance, by ensuring that any infringement of his rights as a journalist and detainee, is brought to the attention of the courts”. Several years on, very little or nothing, civil society actors say, has been done in that light.

Litany of oddities against journalism in Cameroon

Beyond the push for press freedom and the respect of human rights, the oddities against journalism practice in Cameroon are myriad. 

First, it is an environment where there is no Access to Information Act. Getting access to information, especially for journalists in Cameroon, remains herculean or almost impossible. This is especially on key national issues.

In a scenario that aptly describes the saying, “selling the goat and still holding the rope,” government, which boasts of introducing press freedom in Cameroon, has an unwritten rule, whereby government advertising jobs are given only to state media organs like the Cameroon Radio Television, CRTV, Cameroon Tribune and the ruling party propaganda newspaper, L’Action.

In yet another primitive move that hinders press freedom in Cameroon, government, unlike what obtains in civilised countries, where media organs pocket at least five million FCFA yearly; has made nonsense of what it considers subvention to the private media in Cameroon.

From the initial 250 million that was distributed to more than 600 private media organs, media associations and printing houses, the amount has since 2020 been reduced to less than 75 million francs CFA!

Analysts say government’s move to handicap the private media financially, is a clearly calculated effort, not only to stifle press freedom, but to render it helpless and without the means to stay independent. 

Added to this, media practitioners in Cameroon lack the basics that go with any decent employment. Most of don’t have contracts. There are those who receive little or no pay, not to talk of insurance for majority of media practitioners working for the private media.

Even on life-threatening missions, it is almost a norm in Cameroon that officials careless about the safety of journalists. It is always a situation of everyone for himself and God for everyone. There are no special security measures for journalists in crisis zones.

Paying tribute amid odds 

In a statement released Tuesday May 1, the Yaounde Chapter President of the Cameroon Association of English-speaking Journalists, CAMASEJ, Ndi Eugene Ndi, had underscored the need to use this year’s World Press Freedom Day to pay tribute to fallen colleagues.

“It is also an occasion to pay solemn tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty and to highlight the importance of freedom of information as an integral part of freedom of expression,” Ndi wrote.

CAMASEJ fighting back, seeking alternatives 

While appearing as quest on the CRTV Midday News yesterday, the National Secretary General of CAMASEJ, Amindeh Blaise Atabong, said the grouping is working on other alternatives to better the situation of its members.

Amindeh said given the current hostile environment, CAMASEJ is fronting advocacies with different stakeholders to reverse the situation. 

He talked of engagements with especially newspaper publishers, to ensure better treatment of journalists and training of members on alternative sources of income. 

The CAMASEJ scribe sounded positive that given the level of engagement, journalists could start hoping for the institution of the Freedom of Access To Information Act.

           The bright side of journalism in Cameroon

Irrespective of the myriad of speed breaks that hinder press freedom in Cameroon, analysts say the press is relatively free, compared to what obtains in some countries, where media organs are shut down and journalists arrested or killed, for even objectively criticising government action.

It makes meaning to restate that journalists in Cameroon have the liberty to say what they want, without fear of being arrested or killed, by government officials.

President Biya, for instance, they say, is the most insulted Cameroonian, but he is not known to have ordered the arrest of any journalist.