(Business in Cameroon) - Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has just published the 2018 World Press Index. In this index, Cameroon is ranked 129th out of 180 countries. This year, the country has progressed a bit further, since, in the previous ranking, it was 130th.
According to RSF, this rank progress can be justified by the fact that no journalist or RSF’s collaborator has been killed during the period under review. However, the NGO informs that there is a constant threat to the country’s media. Indeed, RSF reports that “the authorities have imposed a climate of fear and self-censorship. At the same time, the government has withheld final legal certification from many radio stations in order to keep them under permanent threat of closure”.
It also comments that Cameroonian journalists are sometimes accused of defamation without notice. “This often leads to exorbitant fines or lengthy prison terms without the ability defend oneself in court”, the NGO wrote.
It further informs that the 2014 terrorism law “that provides for trial by military court has been used to keep a Radio France Internationale correspondent in detention for nearly two and a half years”. Moreover, some journalists were arrested during the crackdown of the protest in Cameroon’s English speaking region where from January 2017, internet was disconnected for months.
S.A