Press release
Reporters Without
Borders (RSF) is appalled by the continuing judicial persecution of two
newspaper journalists and a former journalist who have been accused
since October 2014 of failing to report a matter affecting state
security. They have now found out that the proceedings before a military
court are confirmed.
Félix Cyriaque
Ebolé Bola of Mutations, Rodrigue Tongue of Le Messager and Baba Wame, a
former journalist who is now a teacher, learned this when they were
summoned to the office of a military judge, Capt. Bernard Tsuite, in
Yaoundé on 4 December.
After waiting
several hours, they were notified that, despite a previous ruling
minimizing the case against them, there was "sufficient evidence" for
the charge of failing to report a security matter that they would have
to appear before a military court in Yaoundé.
The reporters were
absurdly accused in October 2014 of failing to share with the
authorities what they knew about the possible presence of a Central
African Republic insurgent at the Cameroonian border.
In fact, they did
not write articles based on their information because the police refused
to answer the questions put by one of the journalists and they
therefore decided the information lacked the necessary verification.
"This judicial
farce has gone on for too long," said Cléa Kahn-Sriber, the head of
RSF's Africa desk. "In a country where the media are often accused of
sloppy reporting, it's the last straw that these journalists are being
prosecuted for acting professionally, checking their facts and deciding
not to publish an incomplete story.
"As things stand,
do these journalists really pose a threat to Cameroon's national
security? We call on the authorities to immediately drop the charges
against them and to desist from any further harassment."
According to one of
the journalists, the judge originally handling their case, Aline Mbia,
was relieved of the case after she lifted their judicial surveillance in
January and was transferred to a military court in Ebolowa, in the
heart of southern Cameroon's equatorial forest.
Journalists in
Cameroon are often subjected to arrests designed to intimidate. Ahmed
Abba, Radio France Internationale's Hausa-language correspondent in
northern Cameroon, is being held incommunicado in Yaoundé since August
in a manner qualified as "extra-judicial" by RFI as he has not been
charged.
François Fogno
Fotso, the editor of the weekly Génération Libre, has been facing
charges of disobeying the police and "rebellion" ever since he
photographed the heavy-handed arrests of pro-democracy activists in
September. His trial has so far been postponed three times.
Cameroon is ranked 133rd out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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