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Cameroon


Blog | Cameroon, UK

In exile: From a Cameroonian jail to immigration limbo

By Charles Artangana/CPJ Guest Blogger
Atangana (David Dore)

I was arbitrary and unlawfully arrested and detained in a heavily secured military police detention facility in Cameroon for 40 days. I had to bribe my way out of the country to seek sanctuary and protection. 

Cameroon is a dictatorship dressed up as a fake democracy, with a leader in power for more than 29 years. As an investigative economics and current affairs journalist, I worked with the leading independent newspaper, Le Messager, and also with other newspapers before that. I wrote critical articles about the government and exposed its wrongdoing and corruption.

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June 20, 2011 12:01 AM ET | | Comments (1)
Tags: Charles Artangana, Exile Report 2011, Exiled
Blog | Cameroon

Cameroon soccer star Samuel Eto'o lashes out at reporter

By Mohamed Keita/CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator
Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o gets a little touchy when reporters question his plays. (AFP)

Journalists: Beware of questioning the performance of Cameroonian international soccer superstar Samuel Eto'o on the field. The act could result in a head butt--as reporter Philippe Boney experienced in 2008--or in rough words, as a Senegalese reporter experienced in a postgame press conference on Saturday. 

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March 30, 2011 5:34 PM ET | | Comments (12)
Tags: Samuel Eto'o
Blog | Cameroon

Fearing Egypt-style revolt, Cameroon bars Twitter service

By Mohamed Keita/CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator

"For security reasons, the government of Cameroon requests the suspension of the Twitter sms integration on the network," announced a March 8 tweet by Bouba Kaélé, marketing manager of the Cameroon unit of South Africa-based telecommunications provider MTN. The announcement has since disappeared from Kaélé's Twitter feed, but was memorialized by a handful of Twitter users who retweeted the comment and the Cameroonian daily Le Jour, which printed a story.

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March 14, 2011 12:56 PM ET | | Comments (5)
Tags: Blogger, Censored, Internet, SMS, Twitter
Blog | Cameroon

Press fuels democracy in Cameroon, across continent

By Célestin Lingo/CPJ Guest Blogger
The author in his office in 1992. (L’Essor des Jeunes)

On January 1, 1960, during the proclamation of independence of the French speaking part of Cameroon, I was forced, with comrades from Leclerc high school in Yaoundé, to take part in the big parade organized by President Ahmadou Ahidjo. At that time, I would occasionally write articles for the school magazine, but also for Les Nouvelles du Moungo, a monthly published in my native city of Nkongsamba. Still haunted by the September 1959 death of my father, a member of the independentist underground banned by France, and the assassination of underground leader Ruben Um Nyobè, I went to see Abbott Albert Ndongmo, who had just launched, in March 1960, a monthly called L’Essor des Jeunes. This truly steered me toward journalism. 

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July 15, 2010 4:30 PM ET | | Comments (6)
Tags: Francophone 50
Blog | Cameroon

Remembering Pius: The devastation of his death

By Kim Brice/Guest Blogger
Pius Njawé (Le Messager)It’s 7:50 a.m. I’m up early—lots of work to finish today. I check my e-mail. There’s a message from CPJ’s Lauren Wolfe, who I don’t know. The opening line reads: “I’m not sure if you heard that Pius Njawé was killed in a car crash yesterday in Virginia. Anne Nelson told us you worked closely with him when he was chosen for the IPFA in 1991.”
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July 14, 2010 12:02 PM ET | | Comments (3)
Tags: International Press Freedom Awards, Pius Njawé
Blog | Burundi, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Niger

50 years on, Francophone Africa strives for media freedom

By Robert Mahoney/Deputy Director
A Congolese man removes a portrait of Belgium's king in Leopoldville on July 22, 1960, at the end of colonial rule. (AP)

CPJ has joined with African press freedom groups to urge African leaders to end repression of the media as they celebrate 50 years since the end of colonial rule. We will publish a series of blogs this week by African journalists reflecting on the checkered history of press freedom over that period.

This year is the 50th anniversary of independence for many countries in sub-Saharan Africa from colonial powers France and Belgium. To mark the event, French President Nicholas Sarkozy has invited African leaders to Paris for the July 14 Bastille Day celebrations. One thing that hasn’t changed much in the last half a century is that the presidents and prime ministers on the Champs Elysees reviewing stand can rest assured that media back home will dutifully report on their speeches and appearances.

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July 13, 2010 2:22 PM ET | | Comments (2)
Tags: Francophone 50, Internet, SMS
Blog | Cameroon

U.S. voices concerns in Ngota death

We received a letter this week from Acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Don Yamamoto in support of our plea to Cameroonian President Paul Biya for an investigation into the death of Germain Ngota Ngota, editor of the Cameroon Express. Ngota did not receive adequate medical assistance while in government custody and died of illness on April 22, according to a prison death certificate that his family shared with journalists. Ngota and editors from two other publications were arrested February 25 in connection with their reports on corruption allegations involving a presidential aide. Here is Yamamoto's letter.

May 28, 2010 1:59 PM ET |
Tags: Germain Cyrille Ngota Ngota, Killed
Blog | Cameroon, Venezuela

Press freedom in the news 1/21/2009

By Andrew Levinson/Communications Assistant
Agence France-Presse has coverage of our letter sent to Cameroonian President Paul Biya on January 16. The letter protested the jailing of four Cameroonian journalists, which makes the country Africa's second-leading jailer of journalists. The reporters have been held since September on charges of criminal defamation. AFP quotes CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon: "The journalists should have never been the object of criminal charges, and we demand that they be freed."

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January 21, 2009 10:08 AM ET |
Tags: Imprisoned, Killed, Orel Sambrano
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