Cameroon censors on behalf of Republic of Congo

The Cameroonian authorities yesterday prevented Cameroonian journalist Elie Smith from taking part in a TV debate about Democracy in Africa and Congo-Brazzaville in particular. An additional act of censorship for the journalist who was already expelled from Congo last year.

Detectives arrested Smith at about 8 p.m. as he was about to enter the studios of privately-owned Equinox TV in Douala to take part in last night's "Le Débat" programme, which was about the role of the opposition in African democracy.

They took Smith to Douala police headquarters, where the head of the regional Criminal Investigation Department told him that he had received orders from the president's office to prevent him participating in the programme.

While held, he was questioned about his activities in Congo and the reasons for his expulsion, Smith said. The police also asked him not to talk about the situation in the neighbouring country prior to the referendum on a constitutional amendment that is due to be held there on Sunday.

"Not content with neutralizing or expelling Congo's leading independent journalists, the Congolese authorities are now reaching beyond their country's borders to prevent journalists from working," said Cléa Kahn-Sriber, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Africa desk.

"Elie Smith's arrest was both an act of censorship of Equinox TV and an additional act of persecution of Smith, who has already ready paid a high personal price for his commitment to journalism. It is disgraceful to see the Cameroonian authorities acting as their neighbour's henchmen."

It was on the Congolese interior minister's orders that Smith was deported on 26 September 2014 from Brazzaville, where had been based for several years and worked for MNTV.

Smith's expulsion came just two weeks after gunmen invaded his home and gang-raped his sister. Fellow journalists said they thought the intruders had been acting on the orders of the authorities, pointing out that Smith's high-profile and outspoken interview programme, "La Grande Interview", often annoyed the government.

Sadio Kanté, a Congolese journalist of Malian origin who was one of the first journalists to condemn the invasion of Smith's home, was expelled a few days before Smith and was forced take up a residence in Mali, a country where she had never lived.

Last night's "Le Débat" programme ended up being broadcast later from a different TV station, Canal 2 Infos, and Smith was able to take part. It focused above all on the referendum in Congo and can be viewed here. Smith told Reporters Without Borders last month that the persons arrested in Congo for the rape of his sister had all been released without being tried. The lawyer he hired to challenge his deportation and to file a complaint about the violence against himself and his sister has dropped the case after being subjected to intimidation.

At the time of writing, Radio France Internationale's FM retransmission signal in Congo, which was cut as a major anti-referendum demonstration was getting under way on 20 October, is still disconnected.

In Central African countries such as Cameroon and Congo, freedom of information is often restricted by means of arbitrary arrests or expulsions of overly critical journalists or prolonged closure of newspapers that help to throttle them economically.

In another recent example in Cameroon, François Fogno Fotso, the publisher of the Yaoundé-based newspaper Génération Libre, was arrested on 15 September just for photographing police arresting civil society representatives, and was held for ten days. He is due to appear in court on 28 October on a charge of disobeying the police and "rebellion."

Republic of Congo is ranked 107th out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index. Cameroon is ranked 133rd.