The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Cameroonian authorities to immediately release journalist Thierry Patrick Ondoua, publishing director of the privately-owned Le Point Hebdo bimonthly newspaper, after he was arrested on Tuesday in connection with a report on the minister of housing’s alleged mismanagement, and to drop all charges against him.

“Journalist Thierry Patrick Ondoua’s troubling detention, as well as the continued imprisonment of five other journalists for their work, underscores the urgent need to reform the country’s laws to ensure journalism is not criminalized,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa Program, in New York. “Government officials should be able to respond to journalistic coverage and criticism without resorting to censorious legal proceedings. Ondoua and the other jailed journalists should be released immediately and not punished for doing their jobs.”

On Tuesday, October 22, the regional division of the judicial police (DRPJ) in Yaoundé, the Cameroonian capital, summoned and arrested Ondoua on charges of false news, defamation, and insulting “constituted bodies,” which includes ministers, deputies and certain types of state officials, according to a CPJ review of the summons letters, and Prosper-Rémy Mimboé, the newspaper’s managing editor, who spoke to CPJ. The arrest followed a complaint filed by Célestine Ketcha Courtès, minister of Housing and Urban Development, and Ondoua is still waiting for arraignment in the Yaoundé court, according to those sources. He faces up to five years imprisonment if convicted.

Mimboé told CPJ that Ondoua’s arrest was in connection with several reports published by Le Point Hebdo criticizing Courtès’ management of housing policies, including one published on June 18, 2024, a copy of which CPJ reviewed.

Cameroon, which is preparing for a presidential election next year that could see the 91-year-old current president Paul Biya run for his eighth term, has seen numerous arrests and suspensions of media outlets and journalists in recent weeks related to the delay of parliamentary and local elections.

Cameroon was ranked as sub-Saharan Africa’s third-worst jailer of journalists in CPJ’s annual prison census, with six imprisoned as of December 1, 2023. One journalist, Stanislas Désiré Tchoua, was released on December 28 after serving a prison sentence for defamation and insult.

CPJ’s messages to Bangté Talamdio, a member of Courtès’ cabinet, and calls to the public listed number for Cameroon’s Ministry of Housing, DRPJ and Yaoundé court of first instance went unanswered.

Source: CPJ

Cameroonian President Paul Biya has directed the dismissal of all state employees who have been absent without justification or suspended from the payroll following the 2018 Physical Headcount of State Personnel (Coppe). This decision, outlined in a circular on October 23, is part of the preparations for the 2025 state budget.

In the circular, President Biya orders the completion of the contentious phase of the Coppe operation by 2025, which will involve permanently removing all identified personnel from the state payroll. These individuals have either been absent without justification, resigned without reporting it, or passed away without official notification. He also called for continued efforts to clean up the payroll system, including removing employees who have resigned and closing salary or pension accounts that were improperly collected.

The 2018 census exposed thousands of irregular cases within the public workforce. By the end of the operation, 8,766 state employees were found to be in violation of payroll rules. Despite multiple warnings and notifications from the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Public Service, only 601 of these employees responded to disciplinary hearings, according to a statement by Public Service Minister Joseph Lé on October 13, 2022.

As of early 2024, many employees still had not complied and remained suspended by their respective departments. Among them were 2,326 teachers who had been flagged for “irregular absence” following various reports, according to a January 17, 2024, statement by Secondary Education Minister Nalova Lyonga.

This latest directive from President Biya aims to finally resolve the issue by removing these non-compliant employees from the state payroll system.

Source: Business in Cameroon

The military tribunal in Yaoundé on September 21, 2024, focused on arguments from government prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Cerlin Belinga. He dismissed all objections raised by the defense in the case surrounding the January 2023 assassination of journalist Martinez Zogo.

Defense attorneys for the 17 defendants, including 12 agents from the Directorate General of External Research (DGRE), attempted to highlight procedural flaws to secure their clients’ release. However, the prosecutor argued that the defense had not raised legitimate objections but merely made “observations,” which he systematically dismissed.

On the issue of establishing a joint police and gendarmerie commission, the prosecutor defended his authority to do so, stating that the accused belonged to these services. He also justified the retroactive regularization of certain reports, asserting that it was his duty to ensure the compliance of actions carried out by judicial police officers under his supervision.

An additional point of contention emerged regarding the December 1, 2023, referral order, which granted release to two key defendants—former DGRE director Léopold Maxime Eko Eko and businessman Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga. The prosecutor dismissed this as a “pointless debate,” noting that the investigating judge, Lieutenant Colonel Sikati II Kamwo, had “clearly disregarded” it.

Regarding allegations of illegal property seizures during searches, the lack of summons for the accused, and the non-compliance of certain procedures, the prosecutor rejected all these observations, ultimately urging the judges to receive and dismiss them.

These submissions sparked a strong reaction from the defense lawyers, who reiterated their appeal for the tribunal’s president, Colonel Misse Njonè, to rule strictly according to the law. The president has adjourned the case until November 11, when he will “rule on the exceptions.”

According to several defense lawyers present, if the judge were to accept their requests, the investigation into the assassination of the head journalist at Amplitude FM could restart from scratch, potentially leading to the release of many of the accused.

Source: Sbbc