Cameroon Government and Presse Freedom action cameroon

Yaounde, Cameroon Africa(Cameroon News) -

A false story about two people losing their lives in the mob that took place at the stadium has cost two journalists in Cameroon their jobs.

Two journalists who work for a private Cameroonian TV Station, Canal2 International, have been thrown out of their jobs after they broadcasted a false report on air about two people losing their lives in the mob that fans created after the Cameroon-Senegal AFCON qualifying football match. The report indicated that the two people had died because of wounds from bullets and asphyxiation by tear gas that the police had employed to counter the riot.

According to trustworthy sources, the journalists, Mr Guy Zogo and Mr Patrick Eya’a, had to be thrown out following tremendous pressure from the department of national security and the Presidency of Cameroon.

The news of the journalists losing their jobs have come in at a moment when the alleged deaths of people following the confusion at the stadium after the match sparked off a lot of controversies. While numerous press reports indicate that there were four deaths police say that there was only one death namely that of Serge Alain Youmbi.

The police also state that Youmbi was trampled to death by angry fans of the national team, though there are more than one eye witnesses who insist that they saw him being a victim of the bullets that were fired by the police.

The mob and riots took place after the Cameroon’s goalless draw with Senegal, which almost made sure that Cameroon would not move on into the Africa Cup of Nations finals to be held in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon next year.

However, Canal2 International General Manager Emmanuel Chatué says that he was not forced to take out the two journalists and claimed that Mr Eya’a’s termination was related to another report that had not been broadcasted as yet on opposition leader Abba Aboubakar, who was recently taken into custody and kept under prison condition that are supposedly “very inhuman”.

Empty catridges

“I want to tell all those who accuse me of having bowed to pressure from the Prime Minister and the Delegate General for National Security to sack the two journalists that this is not true. It is simply inadmissible that Canal2 International becomes ‘Radio Mille Collines’ and incites Cameroonians to rise against each other,” he explained.

Chatué explained that Guy Zogo who had reported and broadcasted the coverage of the alleged loss of lives, he did not have sufficient proof to substantiate that the deaths had been caused by the firing of bullets had no evidence either by means of empty catridges, or knowing the victims he claimed to have lost their life, or by indicating proof that the dead had been killed from the bullets that were fired from the guns of the members of the security forces.

Before the authorities conformed that only one life had been lost in the riot, the minister of Communication, Mr Issa Tchiroma Bakary, had told a press conference on June 7 that two persons had died as a result of the confusion in Yaounde.

But he had also stated that the police were not in any way responsible for the deaths, add that one of the people who were confirmed dead was a “mad man” who lived in Yaounde’s Mfandena quarter, near Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium.

The minister’s press conference however ended quite abruptly when journalists started leveling accusations at the minister for ‘telling lies’.

The fans who had assembled at the stadium for the match had turned extremely angry when the Lions ended the match in a goalless draw after Eto’o lost out on a last minute shot.