Press Insecurity in Coverage of the Anglophone War in Cameroon. Towards Protecting Journalistic Integrity and Marginalized Journalists

Emmanuel K. Ngwainmbi

Abstract

As the global media community prepares to observe another World Press Freedom Day, in tandem with the eighth edition of the Academic Conference on the Safety of Journalists convened in Uruguay and broadcast online, attacks on journalists and abuse of the profession are as diversified and complex as never before. Military regimes and some nations claiming to be democratic harass journalists and prevent them from accessing and reporting news correctly. We must beam some light on the increasing number of internal conflicts, government crackdown on protests, and widespread use of social media in emerging democracies marginalized communities worldwide have made the work of trained journalists. Countries with weak political structures and deep corruptive practices continue to suppress the press’ ability to observe, monitor, record and report facts to properly inform affected groups and the human community in general. Such a scenario exists in the Republic of Cameroon (aka La Republique du Cameroun (LRC), West Africa, where some 8 million predominantly English-speaking people in Cameroon and abroad are locked in a struggle for recognition as a separate nation from the Republic of Cameroon (LRC). The struggle itself has seen disfigured by misinformation on social media platforms, unreliable reporting of the crises, and journalists having limited access to news and information sources. Unconfirmed reports are that state-instructed LRC’s military and pro-independence fighters are being blamed for preventing journalists from reaching affected groups, particularly refugees, inhabitants facing inhumane treatment by the military and Using straw polls and telephonic surveys carried out periodically since 2022 on journalists serving four independent newspapers in the Anglophone region, this presentation shall highlight newsgathering and reporting practices during the war. It will show (a) tactics the LRC government uses to limit access to the private press from harvesting and breaking news and obstructing observers from sharing data on victims and at-risk persons; and (b) how journalists are compromised (bribed) to disseminate misinformation, soil the image of the pro-independence movement and promote LRC’s propaganda. The author shall then offer possible solutions for the gridlock inter alia (i) ways of re-establishing integrity in journalism as a credible news bank and (ii) how journalists in nations excluded from mainstream social, economic, educational, and/or cultural life should be protected against punitive activities exercised by national governments and international partners, particularly donors. Proposed duration: 1 hour (in-person Email: [email protected]

Presentation