Cameroon ranked third worst jailer of journalists in Africa 2022
By Nde Laura
Cameroon stands at the third position on the list of countries with the worst records of jailers and killers of journalists in Africa.
The information is contained in the Committee to Protect Journalists CPJ, 2022 report on the state of justice for attacks on the press around the world on Wednesday, December 14, 2022.
According to the report, the number of journalists jailed worldwide set yet another record this year. The Committee’s annual prison census found out that 363 journalists were detained, 57killed, 49 disappeared and 54 held hostages as of December 1, 2022, a new global high that overtakes last year’s record with an increase of 20%.
In Africa, the CPJ identified 56 of these journalists, out of which at least five come from Cameroon, which was ranked in the third position and has appeared in the association’s prison census every year since 2014. Cameroon comes after Eritrea second, and Egypt first in Africa.
The journalists who could be identified were; Amadou Vamoulké, former Director General of the Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV), arrested on July 29, 2016, Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka, a freelance reporter detained on May 15, 2020, Mancho Bibixy of Abakwa FM, arrested on January 17, 2017, Thomas Awah Junior detained on January 2, 2017, and Tsi Conrad, freelance journalist arrested on December 8, 2016.
The CPJ says these five journalists were arbitrarily detained under an opaque judicial system that includes the use of military tribunals to prosecute journalists, who are civilians under international law.
At the world level, this year’s top five jailers of journalists are from Iran, China, Myanmar, Turkey, and Belarus, respectively.
According to the CPJ, the arrest and detention of journalists are a “key driver behind authoritarian governments” increasingly oppressive efforts to stifle the media and to keep the lid on broiling discontent in a world disrupted by COVID-19 and the economic fallout from Russia’s war on Ukraine.”
