Bashiru Edua, Editor of African Drum magazine in Jos, Nigeria and Martin Yembe Fon, Editor of The Frontier Telegraph of Cameroon were arrested last month in the southwestern town of Buea in Cameroon for covering a secessionist gathering. The two are free on bail, but face fines and up to six months in jail.
The Committee to Protect Journalists Friday November 9, 2012 called on Cameroonian officials to drop criminal charges against the two journalists, but same day the court heard their defense and the case was adjourned until March 14, their lawyer, Ajong Stanislaus Anuaboudem, told CPJ.
The following is a press statement from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
9 Nov 2012 05:05 Africa/Lagos
Two Journalists Face Unlawful Assembly Charges in Cameroon
NEW YORK, November 9, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Cameroonian officials to drop criminal charges against two journalists who were arrested last month in the southwestern town of Buea for covering a secessionist gathering. The two are free on bail but face fines and up to six months in jail.
Martin Yembe Fon, who is editor of local newspaper The Frontier Telegraph, and Bashiru Edua, a Nigerian national and editor of African Drum magazine publishing in Jos, Nigeria, still face charges of unlawful assembly. Today, the court heard their defense and the case was adjourned until March 14, their lawyer, Ajong Stanislaus Anuaboudem, told CPJ.
Fon and Edua were arrested on October 1 as they tried to cover a gathering at a local church, according to news reports and local journalists. Police officers stopped Fon and Edua and seized their press cards before ordering them to go inside, Fon told CPJ. "While in the church, we took pictures of the over 100 activists and church officials praying," he said. "Midway into the prayers, a large contingent of policemen invaded the premises with police vans, ordering all to walk into the vans or be brutalized."
Fon and Edua were driven along with the others to the central police station in Buea, where they were interrogated, fingerprinted, and photographed, leading independent daily Le Messager reported. After 10 hours of detention, they were taken to court and charged with unlawful assembly under Section 231(a) of the Cameroonian Penal Code, defense lawyer Anuaboudem told CPJ. The charge carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison and a fine of 100,000 CFA francs (US$200). The journalists pleaded not guilty and were released on bail at midnight on October 2, after six hours at the courthouse, Fon said.
Police have not returned Fon's digital camera or recorder, he said.
"Martin Yembe Fon and Bashiru Edua were apparently unconvenient witnesses to a crackdown on a gathering of secessionists, an issue of national public interest the Cameroonian government would rather suppress," said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. "We urge Cameroon authorities to drop charges against the two journalists, who were doing their job."
The activists had gathered to commemorate the date in 1961 on which the local province--formerly under British colonial mandate as Southern Cameroons--became part of the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon, according to the journalists and news reports. For the government, the date is a commemoration of national unity, but locals use the occasion to renew long-standing demands for secession from Cameroon. Le Messager quoted an unnamed police officer as saying that security forces stormed the church to prevent the group from staging a protest march after the service.
At an October 19 press conference, Cameroon government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary denied that journalists are detained in the country for their work, according to news reports. He was speaking in response to joint findings by CPJ, PEN International and France-based Internet Sans Frontières that investigating corruption and reporting on political unrest are punishable acts for Cameroonian journalists. "We can observe, while regretting it, that certain ordinary citizens, journalists by profession, sometimes find themselves in our prisons, following accusations based on common law offenses, punishable by criminal law," Bakary said.
Source: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
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