By Elah Geoffrey Mbongale
The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ has indicted Cameroon for using the ‘anti-terror’ law to arrest and threaten journalists, creating a climate of fear among political reporters and other journalists.
The anti-terrorism law was enacted in 2014 to counter the insurgence of the Boko Haram islamist terror group which has been responsible for numerous attacks, deaths and destruction in the northern part of the country.
In a report that was released last Wednesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the anti-terror law was being used to silence media workers who report on Boko Haram, or on civil unrest in the North West and South West regions.
The report said that the crackdown on the press has left journalists too scared to cover politics.
“For fear of the unknown, many now run away from hard news, especially if it will put their lives at risk,” a journalist for an English-language outlet, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, told CPJ. “They prefer to avoid using certain words and have suspended very heated debate slots and programs … that may plunge them into trouble. To many, self-censorship saves them the trouble of being monitored or from the dragnet of those who seek to silence their pens.” The report reads in part
With elections due to take place next year in Cameroon, journalists are steering away from sensitive issues in fear of reprisals, the CPJ said.
According to Angela Quintal, CPJ Africa Program Director and author of the report.”Cameroon is clearly using anti-state legislation to silence criticism in the press, when you equate journalism with terrorism, you create an environment where fewer journalists are willing to report on hard news for fear of reprisal”
“Cameroon must amend its laws and stop subjecting journalists – who are civilians – to military trial,” Quintal added.
The report cites the cases of some journalists who have been repeatedly arrested under the act, including Radio France Internationale broadcaster and CPJ International Press Freedom Award honouree Ahmed Abba.
Abba was arrested in July 2015 and is currently serving a 10-year-sentence. He has routinely suffered beatings at the hands of prison guards, according to the CPJ report.
There were four journalists held under the anti terrorism law, until a presidential decree in August 2017, secured their release. These include; Atia Tilarious Azohnwi, political desk editor of The Sun; Hans Achomba, a documentary filmmaker; and Tim Finnian, publisher and editor of the weekly newspaper, Life Time. The decree also ended criminal proceedings against Jean-Claude Agbortem of online magazine Camer Veritas, who was on bail on accusations of inciting terrorism. All of them faced trial before a military court and, if convicted, they would have faced the death penalty, citing the report.
CPJ also mentioned other cases, including Thomas Awah Junior, publisher of the monthly magazine Ahem Messenger, who was arrested on January 2 in Bamenda and still in detention in Yaounde, and Fonja Hanson, editor of the privately owned Cameroon Report and the chief executive of the Cameroon Broadcasting Service, arrested in Bamenda on July 28. Amos Fofung, Buea bureau chief for The Guardian Post, was freed on August 5 without charge, after being detained for nearly six months.
Reacting to CPJ’s act in awarding a press freedom price to Abba while in jail, Issa Tchrioma Bakary, Cameroon’s Communication Minister said the act downplays the competence of the country’s judicial system which to him is unacceptable.
He decried the pressure being mounted by some foreign media houses for the release of Abba. Speaking in Yaounde recently in an interview granted the state media, CRTV, Minister Tchiroma insisted that the journalist is in jail for conniving with boko haram.
“He was arrested in violation of our laws.The trail took place openly. All of his rights has been exercised and he was found guilty and sentenced to ten years according to our law” he said.
The government has however not officially reacted to the recent CPJ report titled; “Journalists Not Terrorists: In Cameroon, anti-terror legislation is used to silence critics and suppress dissent”.