Anglophone Crisis: Consortium Releases Satetment On Threat To Media Outlets By The Government

West Cameroon (21 Jan 2017 ) -- A recent release warning some media organs in Cameroon and threatening them with either suspension or outright bans was read Thursday on the state broadcaster, CRTV. The National Communication Council accuses the media outlets in the release of publishing and broadcasting seditious articles that glorify Federalism and or Secession ideologies, thus threatening peace and national unity. Trusted sources et the Ministry of Communication (MINCOM ) and the National Communication Council (NCC) revealed to the Consortium that the release had been prepared by two state politicians ; the Minister in Charge of Special Duties et the Presidency of the Republic , Atanga Paul Nji, and a Senior Official at the Ministry of Communication, Felix Zogo.
The dubious release was taken to the NCC to be rubber stamped.

The NCC boss, Peter Essoka, was threatened to sign it, our sources hinted. The NCC boss reportedly resisted signing the document, "citing procedural violations and the need for a session to be held to examine the issues raised to no avail."
Cameroun imposed control on key internet providers MTN and Orange, through its state-run internet service provider, CAMTEL, citing dubious "security concerns." A recorded phone conversation with MTN South Africa Bureau confirmed that the 34-year regime ordered MTN to stop the supply of its internet services to millions of citizens in West Cameroon. A highly Confidential Mail NO. 006/DG issued by the CAMTEL Boss, David Nkotto Emane, on the 18th of January, 2017 to the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications and leaked out to the Consortium by a reliable source at Minister Libom Likeng Minette's cabinet, explains that MTN and Orange were coerced to deprive the West Cameroon from its access to internet services in a bid to inflict untold sufferings to the citizens.

The Consortium has also been reliably informed that the regime would block WhatsApp nationwide next week because citizens from West Cameroon cross over to neighbouring Bafoussam and Douala which are border towns closest to Bamenda and Tiko respectively, to upload pictures on World Wide Web that report gross violations of human rights, all forms of torture and the use of brute force on civilians, mostly women and children.

Journalists are reporting that the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bak, had previously, personally called a few of them working with the private press by telephone and threatened them to stop the coverage of the Anglophone problem or he would ask their bosses to them. A few days later, two audience-pulling TV journalists working for LTM, a Douala-based TV Channel, were sacked without prior notice.

Call for Condemnation

The United Nations' 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression ; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers".
Several international instruments including the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, ratified by Cameroon forbid such repressive acts against the free speech. It is unacceptable that while other countries in Africa have leaped from autocracies to democracies, Cameroon is left behind despite its millions of citizens who are willing to push forth universal rights and freedoms through dialogue, understanding, and integration of all parties.

Violating basic rights is condemnable and punishable. Citizens must not keep living in fear and tyranny in the 21st cent,. President Paul Biya must stop the ever-increasing violations of the rights of the own people of Cameroon. We .11 on the international community of goodwill to immediately puncture a brewing genocide nursed by President Paul Biya and his supporters of bad faith. The people need dialogue and not deadlock. We remain convinced that current affront on the credible press in Cameroon falls within the realms of what one-time US President Thomas Jefferson said: "No experiment can be more interesting than that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact, that man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first objective should, therefore, be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions."