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The committee to protect journalists, CPJ has since the arrest of pressman Samuel Wazizi been engaged in a battle for his release.
Popularly known as “Halla ya matter” Wazizi was picked up by security forces in August 2019 under obscure circumstances.
In one of several calls made, the CPJ stated that “authorities must stop trying to force journalists like Samuel Wazizi to toe the government line about the separatist conflict in Cameroon”.
Government in its efforts to control journalists the CPJ went on, does so ” by harassing and intimidating them through illegal detentions and flagrant violations of the rule of law,”.
“The fact that Wazizi is being detained by the military, which has no jurisdiction to investigate terrorism-related charges, also raises serious questions about due process and the journalist’s safety. He must be released immediately with no condition” said the CPJ’s Angela Quintal.
After several weeks of attempting to meet and talk with Wazizi to no avail, his colleagues and family members have expressed fears that he might have been killed or is being held in inhumane conditions.
Wazizi’s case is one of many similar instances of poor treatment of pressmen often involving cases of arbitrary arrest, detention and torture.
Depicting Cameroon’s track record of handling journalists, many say it shows the extent to which the government in power is ready to go to silence voices that fail to agree with it.
