Cameroon / Africa

  

NGOs call for protection of journalists in Cameroon

A joint submission by the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Freedom House for the 44th Session of the Universal Periodic Review Working Group, November 2023.

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CPJ joins letter calling for release of journalists, others arbitrarily detained in Cameroon

The Committee to Protect Journalists on Thursday, February 3, joined 26 other civil society organizations in calling on President Paul Biya to release all those arbitrarily detained in Cameroon for acts of free expression, including at least four journalists. The open letter, published during the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, notes that the continent’s…

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CPJ joins call for Cameroonian government to account for Samuel Wazizi’s death in custody

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined nine other human rights and press freedom groups yesterday in a statement calling on the Cameroonian government to allow for an independent probe into the death of journalist Samuel Wazizi. The statement calls for U.N. Security Council members to take advantage of a June 12 meeting with the U.N….

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A woman walks past Rapid Intervention Battalion members as they patrol in the city of Buea in October 2018. CPJ and others are calling on the ACHPR to address human rights violations in Cameroon's Anglophone regions. (Reuters/Zohra Bensemra)

African Union must act on Cameroon’s human rights violations

The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 64 other civil society organizations in calling on the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) to address serious and systematic human rights violations in Cameroon, including the jailing of journalists.

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Members of the Cameroonian Gendarmerie patrol Buea in October 2018, during a political rally. In a letter to the UN Security Council, CPJ and other groups have highlighted the deteriorating situation, including the jailing of journalists, in parts of Cameroon. (AFP/Marco Longari)

CPJ joins call for UN Security Council to act on Cameroon crisis

The Committee to Protect Journalists and eight other civil society organizations sent a letter to members of the United Nations Security Council about the deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation in Cameroon. The letter was sent ahead of the U.N. Regional Office for Central Africa briefing to the Security Council, due to take place on…

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President Paul Biya and his wife, Chantal, at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C. in 2014. Cameroon's government is seen by some journalists as being sensitive to criticism. (Reuters/Larry Downing)

In Cameroon, press struggles with financial and official constraints

On March 16, Cameroon’s Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakari, denounced French online news outlet Le Monde as unprofessional at a press conference after it reported on allegations that President Paul Biya was in hospital in Geneva. The incident is symbolic of the growing problem in Cameroon, which has a growing but poorly funded independent…

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CPJ board member Clarence Page, right, speaks  at a panel Wednesday organized by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights in partnership with CPJ in Washington, D.C. (CPJ/Rachael Levy)

First US-Africa summit short on press freedom, other human rights

Top African and U.S. leaders are meeting next week in Washington in a first-of-its-kind summit focused on African development. But critics argue the summit is flawed in design, overlooking human rights such as freedom of expression and barring civil society actors from bilateral discussions.

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Atangana (David Dore)

In exile: From a Cameroonian jail to immigration limbo

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…

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Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o gets a little touchy when reporters question his plays. (AFP)

Cameroon soccer star Samuel Eto’o lashes out at reporter

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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Fearing Egypt-style revolt, Cameroon bars Twitter service

“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…

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