By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah
Authorities in Cameroon have been asked to immediately release Michel Biem Tong, editor of the privately owned Hurinews website, who was detained on October 23, 2018 after being summoned to the State Secretariat for Defense in the capital, Yaoundé.
Prior to his arrest, Tong had published articles criticizing the Cameroonian government’s handling of grievances of Anglophone Cameroonians from the western regions of the country in the run-up to presidential elections held on October 7. CPJ’s Africa representative, Muthoki Momo, said Michel Biem Tong has been in detention for a week and Cameroonian officials have yet to give any reason for his arrest. “Journalists in Cameroon are too often arrested for simply trying to keep the population informed about the political and economic situation in the country,” Momo said.
Journalists in Cameroon say Tong had anticipated his arrest after he received repeated calls from a Cameroonian military official known as Colonel Joel Emile Bamkoui to present himself at the State Secretariat for Defense, known by its French acronym, SED. The summons were connected to an alleged audio recording in which Tong expressed sympathies toward the Anglophone separatists in western Cameroon, according to journalists. In his statement, Tong denies having made any such recording.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and other human rights organizations have expressed concerns over the arrest of the journalist. President of the Cameroonian journalists’ trade union, Denis Nkwebo says the unions concerned about the arrest of Michael Biem Tong and “have been discussing with authorities to know why he has been arrested.” Hurinews published a statement by a Gabonese network of civil society organizations, known by its French acronym ROLBG, calling for Tong’s release and extolling “his numerous writings supported by credible and richly documented information” about the government’s alleged human rights violations in the Anglophone regions.
Journalists and human rights organizations say Cameroon’s minister of information, Issa Tchiroma Bakary have not responded to enquiries about the journalist’s condition and the reasons for his arrest. Since 2016, Cameroon has repeatedly jailed journalists for reporting in the western regions of the country, according to CPJ research. Cameroonian President Paul Biya was in early October re-elected for a seventh term following a controversial election victory.