Crackdown in Cameroon – Constitution amendment oppossed

<From Tansa Musa

YAOUNDE, Feb 24  – Police raided a TV station in  Cameroon’s main commercial centre  this week and shut it down, its owner said, raising fears of a media crackdown as opposition continues to mount within the country of President Paul Biya’s stated intention to change the constitution to extend his 25-year rule.

      The Communications Ministry said in a statement on Friday Equinoxe TV had been closed for broadcasting illegally. A senior ministry official told Reuters the decision was linked to the station’s coverage of opposition to extending Biya’s rule.

      “I was very shocked when a group of over 30 gendarmes and policemen stormed our television station on Thursday,” said Equinoxe TV owner Severin Tchounkeu.

      Journalists at state broadcaster CRTV said they had been instructed not to cover criticism of constitutional change, and last week a CRTV radio presenter was suspended for merely programming for play a song lambasting African leaders who cling to power, or do everthing to be succeeded by their own sons as was the case in Togo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

      This modest oil-producing Central African country’s constitution requires Biya, who was 75 on Feb. 13, to step down in 2011. But Biya said in his End-of-Year message to the nation last December 31 that his government would “re-examine” the constitution after what he claimed were popular calls for him to stay on past 2011. Hoever, his part secretary general Rene Sadi eventually told the people the idea was originated by the president himself.

      Biya’s party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), won an overwhelming parliamentary majority last year in elections which were dismissed by the opposition and independent observers as a sham, which could allow it to change the constitution.

      Earlier this month, Equinoxe broadcast an interview with John Fru Ndi, leader of the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), in which he accused Biya of wanting to rule for life and demanded a broad-based constitutional conference. The station later aired footage of security forces beating SDF supporters during a demonstration against Biya.

      The senior Communications Ministry official, who declined to be named, said Equinoxe’s coverage of the demonstration was a major factor in the decision to shut the station. Equinoxe is one of about 30 private radio and television stations in Cameroon who are operating without a broadcasting licence while media authorities consider their applications.

      Stations are generally allowed to continue broadcasting during the lengthy application process under what the authorities have termed “administrative tolerance”. “What they call ‘administrative tolerance’ is simply a way to hold a sword of Damocles over the heads of private broadcasters, which they could bring down any time a broadcaster no longer serves their purposes,” said Pius Njawe, general manager of Free Media Group, publisher of independent daily newspaper Le Messager and owner of Freedom Radio FM.”I think this is a setback for press freedom.”

       Equinoxe’s Tchounkeu said the closure came without warning. “Since we started operating over one year ago, we have not received any complaints from the authorities of any wrong-doing. So I am confused as to why our TV station was singled out for punishment,” he said.

      State broadcaster CRTV has banned a critical song by Cameroonian singer Longue Longue and last week it indefinitely suspended Billy Carson, a radio presenter with the broadcaster for over 20 years, for programming the song, “50 years in power”.

      “Fifty years in power, that’s the African disease. ..That is the African virus. Embezzling public funds is the African disease. Save money in secret banks abroad is the African disease. They rule African people as if they are beasts. They lead the people as if they are blind. They don’t respect the people. We don’t want that any more,” Longue Longue sings in the song.

      Meanwhile, the European Union delegate in Yaounde, Javier Puyol, has joined U.S. ambassador to warn Cameroon authorities against precipitating a revision of  article 6.2 of the constitution to suit the personal ambition of president Paul Biya to extend his stay in power, saying such development may undermind the country’s long term political stability.

      ”It is not good for the long term stability of a country that institutions depend too much on persons…The participation of the people in decision-making is essential for long term political stability.It is important to make a difference between between short term political stability imposed by security forces and the country where the people do not participate in decision-making,” said Puyol.

      ”Cameroon has been stable for some time, but will it remain stable over the long term? I hope so, but this will depend on the solidity of its institutions and not on persons…I believe that Cameroonians have the right to modify their laws and the constitution. But this has to be done only after a free, open and broad-based debate in which every citizen’s voice can be heard.”

       Despite the warnings and growing hostility, Biya remains undaunted. His party last week launched a nation-wide campaign during which it is using large sums of money to buy people’s conscience and gain support for his intention to modify the constitution. Moreover, public demonstrations in the main economic city, Douala, with a population estimated at over 4 million, are still prohibited, security forces are put on maximum alert and they do not hesitate to use force to disperse protests, be they peaceful. What has led many people to conclude that the Kenya syndrome is hanging over Cameroon. (END)

Published by Korir, API africanpress@getmail.no