Cameroonian authorities should immediately lift an indefinite ban against The Post newspaper in the Southwest Region and stop any retaliatory action against the privately owned media outlet and its staff, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.

On Tuesday, September 12, Southwest regional governor Bernard Okalia Bilai banned The Post until further notice, accusing the outlet of “flagrant violation of professional norms,” according to a copy of the order reviewed by CPJ and media reports.

The ban followed the publication of a social media post showing a copy of the newspaper’s Monday front page with a headline, “66% of Cameroonians want a military coup.” It was based on a September 9 report in the weekly The Continent and a tweet about a survey of citizens in 36 countries between 2021 and 2022 by Afrobarometer, a pan-African, non-partisan research network based in Ghana. The survey found that while most Africans disapprove of military rule, “a slim majority (53%) are willing to endorse military intervention if elected leaders abuse their power,” including 66% of respondents in Cameroon, who agreed that “it was legitimate for the armed forces to take control of the government when elected leaders abuse power for their own ends.”

The Post’s senior editors pulled the edition before it could be printed, and a new one without the headline or article was published and distributed, but it was too late to delete the social media post that was uploaded without final approval, according to the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Bouddih Adams, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app, and a statement on the newspaper’s Facebook page.

A spate of coups in the region, including most recently in neighboring Gabon, where the Bongo family had ruled for 56 years, has led to speculation and fear among some leaders, including Cameroon’s president Paul Biya, who has been in power for more than 40 years, that they might be next. On August 30, the day of the Gabon coup, Biya announced a shakeup in the defense ministry and armed forces, giving no reason for the decision.

The governor’s action against The Post comes less than two months after Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, urged regional governors to closely monitor the activities of media outlets and NGOs operating in Cameroon and warned the media “to think twice before publishing or making public pronouncements.”

“Cameroonian authorities, including Southwest Governor Bernard Okalia Bilal, should immediately lift the sanctions against The Post, especially as the headline and article never made it into print and its senior executives were quick to act and limit any fallout,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator. “The fact that The Post is being sanctioned and penalized on three fronts by authorities is not only excessive and disproportionate, but also proves that press freedom remains under threat in Cameroon, especially after Minister Paul Atanga Nji’s recent warning to the media to toe the line or face the consequences.”

The Post’s coup-themed front-page headline (the story was inside) caused consternation among Cameroon’s ruling elite and prompted Joseph Chebongkeng Kalabubse, the president of Cameroon’s media regulator, the National Communication Council, to rebuke the newspaper on Tuesday, saying it went against “the responsibility and professional rules that guide journalism given the country’s socio-political context,” according to a media report and a recording of his statement reviewed by CPJ.

The same day, a committee on government funding of private media, under the Ministry of Communications, barred the newspaper from receiving an annual grant because of the headline, according to at least two people with knowledge of the decision who asked not to be named as they are not authorized to comment.

Both actions were taken while newspaper representatives appeared before an NCC inquiry on Wednesday, with the media regulator ruling on the next day that The Post and its publisher, Yerima Kini Nsom, should be suspended for one month each for the headline on social media “bearing information likely to disrupt national cohesion and social peace,” according to a copy of the decision reviewed by CPJ and a video recording of the NCC press conference.

Also on Thursday, two representatives of the newspaper were questioned by the governor’s head of security about the source of their information, Nsom told CPJ via messaging app.

Neither Bilal nor Kalabubse replied to CPJ’s questions via messaging app.

Nsom said he did not believe that the NCC decision would trump the governor’s decision in the Southwest Region, where the paper is headquartered. “It is a grotesque situation wherein many cooks are involved in the cooking of one pot of soup. The governor is using an obnoxious law on the maintenance of public order, which is virtually a blank cheque for him to abuse office and infringe on freedoms, especially press freedom,” Nsom said, adding that the publication and staff  “remained vulnerable” to further harassment and possibly even arrest.

Afrobarometer’s director of analysis Carolyn Logan told CPJ via email that its national partner in Cameroon had been questioned by the regional governor and media authorities. “But they have jointly reviewed the information that was released on the Afrobarometer website, and as of now there have been no consequences for our partner” or Afrobarometer, she said, adding that the headline in question did not accurately reflect the findings released by Afrobarometer.

Source: CPJ.org

The Head of the Agency of the newspaper, L’Oeil du Sahel, Bertrand Ayissi, has been arrested and detained in an apparent attempt at intimidation. He was summoned by the Governor of the Adamaoua Region in Central Cameroon, Governor Kildadi Taguieke Bouka, on 12 September. Ayissi was then handed to the Vina Gendarmerie and taken into custody.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate the National Union of Journalists in Cameroon ( Syndicat national des journalistes du Cameroun) (SNJC) in vehemently denouncing this act of intimidation and attempt to silence journalists and the media.

According to a press release issued by the SNJC on 13 September, journalist Bertrand Ayissi carried out an investigation into the trafficking of human organs and bones in Adamaoua. This was published in L’Oeil du Sahel on 18 August. Ayissi was summoned to the Governor’s office on 12 September where Governor Bouka accused him of being ‘a hired journalist manipulated by men lurking in the shadows to blacken the work being done on security in the region’.  Bouka further accused Ayissi of wanting to ‘disturb public order’. Ayissi was detained for 24 hours before being released, but is still being investigated for the story he had published.

The SNJC condemned the act of intimidation meted out to Ayissi and called on the Governor to take proper legal action if he feels that Ayissi has committed an offence. The SNJC called all its members to mobilise and stay steadfast in the face of adversity.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: ‘This arrest of our colleague Bertrand Ayissi is a clear act of intimidation designed to force journalists into self-censorship and eventually silence them. We call on the Cameroonian authorities to drop all charges against Bertrand and guarantee his safety.”

Source: ifj.org

President Faustin-Archange Touadera of the Central African Republic has met Cameroon’s collapsing president, Paul Biya at the so-called Unity Palace in Yaoundé.

The Russia-Wagner backed leader was in Cameroon to give assurances from President Putin that Moscow would not overthrow the corrupt and moribund Yaoundé government which has been in power for over four decades and has nothing to show for its existence.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that the 12 September 2023 meeting lasted over one hour thirty minutes.

Faustin-Archange Touadera, the designated mediator of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), and current Chair of the CEMAC Heads of State Conference also briefed the 90-year-old Cameroonian dictator on his mission to Libreville, where he met, last week, with the new Gabonese strongman.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Southern Cameroons detainees have described the prison in Buea, as a horrific slaughterhouse.

The prison in Buea has over 1000 Anglophone prisoners and the worse conditions of detention and imprisonment.

“It is sad that Barrister Agbor Bala the so-called human rights champion speaks of everything in Anglophone Cameroon except the Buea prison where inmates have barely some few hours of clean air” a Southern Cameroons detainee told our Buea correspondent.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the Buea prison opens at 11am and shuts at 4pm while every other detention facility in Francophone Cameroun opens 7am and closes at 6.45pm.

“The only viable solution is to promptly shutter the Buea prison and relocate the inmates to a more appropriate detention facility in the South West region,” a Roman Catholic cleric contacted by CIR said.

The priest who sued for anonymity furthered that the Buea prison facility is overcrowded, unsanitary, dangerous and lacking basic amenities. The toilets and bathrooms are combined in the same small space.

The prison is home to a variety of Southern Cameroons inmates, including dangerous criminals from Yaoundé and Douala a mix that creates a volatile environment that is prone to violence.

Throughout their incarceration, Southern Cameroons detainees have endured a host of medical issues, including malaria and typhoid fever.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, who has been in pre-trial detention since 4 March 2023 following the assassination of journalist Martinez Zogo was verbally abused by a staff member of the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison, witnesses told Cameroon Concord News.

The incident occurred on September 9 as Eko Eko was having a walk around the prison facility.

A prison officer whose name we are withholding insulted Mr. Eko Eko in front of several other officials.

Following the verbal attack, Léopold Maxime Eko Eko made a u-turn and headed back to his private cell. The disgraced spy chief has been harassed many times by prison officials.

Léopold Maxime Eko Eko was recently interrogated by a judge at the Yaoundé Military Tribunal.

By Isong Asu