What changed

B100230/2025

B100237/2025

Motion for a European Parliament resolution on Prosecution of journalists in Cameroon, notably the cases of Amadou Vamoulké, Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka, Mancho Bibixy, Thomas Awah Junior and Tsi Conrad

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Cameroon,Cameroon

– having regard to RulesRule 150(5)150 of its Rules of Procedure,

Whereas Cameroon’s counter-terrorism law is broad and open to abuse and often used to arrest, intimidate and sentence journalists in military courts notably for covering protests in English-speaking regions of the North-West and South-West (NW/SW regions) ;

whereas several NGOs submitted a report to the UN on freedom of expression and press in 2023; whereas this report concluded that Cameroonian journalists face lethal threats and false legal charges while reporting on the Anglophone conflict; whereas there is virtually no press freedom in Cameroon; whereas journalists and media outlets have to use self-censorship in order to avoid harassment and prosecution; whereas the largest media outlets are owned by the state and being used to distribute propaganda of President Biya, who has been in power since 1982; whereas privately owned media outlets are strictly supervised; whereas Freedom House stated in 2022 that Cameroon is not a free state;

Whereas both security forces and separatist groups have committed serious abuses against civilians; whereas security forces bear particular responsibility for excessive use of force and voluntarily delaying accountability, notably in the village of Ngarbuh;

whereas Cameroon is one of Africa’s most dangerous countries for journalists who have to work in a hostile and precarious environment; whereas several journalists have been murdered; whereas it is impossible for media outlets to adopt critical and independent editorial policy without facing a significant risk of harassment, legal issues or lethal threats if its reporting endangers the interests of the government and its representatives; whereas Cameroon’s laws, including the 1990 press freedom law, are often circumvented in order to repress journalists; whereas anti-terrorism laws and military tribunals have been abused by the authorities to detain, prosecute and imprison representatives of the media;

Whereas the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that the detention of English-speaking journalist Thomas Awah Junior was a violation of international law;

whereas Cameroon has detained, prosecuted and imprisoned several journalists and other representatives of media, most notably Amadou Vamoulké, Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka, Mancho Bibixy, Thomas Awah Junior and Tsi Conrad; whereas these individuals have been detained, prosecuted, or imprisoned on baseless charges;

Whereas UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urged Cameroon to ensure an independent, effective, and impartial investigation into the murder of journalist Jean-Jacques Ola Bébé, who was killed while investigating the torture and murder of his former colleague, Martinez Zogo;

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Whereas in the case of journalist Samuel Wazizi, the Cameroonian authorities had to admit his sudden death in the Yaoundé military hospital following revelations in the national press;

Strongly condemns the unjust imprisonment of Amadou Vamoulké, Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka, Mancho Bibixy, Thomas Awah Junior, Tsi Conrad and all other media representatives;

Calls for the immediate and unconditionally release of all arbitrarily detained individuals, including journalists, opposition members, and activists; urges Cameroon to ensure fair trials in line with international standards;

Demands that the Cameroonian authorities release all media representatives immediately and unconditionally, as well as all others detained or imprisoned for exercising their freedoms, democratic rights, while doing their job and to drop all charges against them;

Reiterates its serious concerns over the arbitrary arrest and harassment of journalists ;

Denounces the degradation of the rule of law, human rights and press freedom in Cameroon and urges the authorities to repeal all repressive legislation and ensure the judiciary’s independence;

Recalls that military tribunals cannot try civilians under international law;

Demands that Cameroonian authorities stop all ongoing human rights violations related to freedom of press, expression, and speech; demands that the right to press freedom be fully restored;

Calls on Cameroonian authorities to guarantee the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly for all;

Highlights the need to protect civil society organizations and preserve press freedom;

Strongly recommends a comprehensive reform of the deeply flawed anti-terrorism law ;

Calls on Member States to exert diplomatic and economic pressure towards Cameroon until all unduly imprisoned journalists and other media representatives are released;

Calls on Cameroon to ratify the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Cameroon committed to do during the previous Universal Periodic Review;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the VP/HR, the Cameroonian authorities, the African Union, the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Pan-African Parliament.

Reiterates its call to Member States to support a UN Human Rights Council fact-finding mission to Cameroon to determine the extent to which international human rights law and international humanitarian law have been violated and by whom since the last decade, in particular in light of the conflict in the NW/SW regions;

Further stresses that the culture of impunity has severe consequences, fuels systemic corruption, undermines Human Rights as well as encourages violence and social unrest;

Reaffirms its strong and unequivocal opposition to the use of the death penalty under all circumstances; calls on Cameroon to ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

Calls on the international community to question the characterisation of the conflict in the NW/SW regions as a full-blown "non-international armed conflict" (NIAC); underlines international humanitarian law applies only if a situation is recognised as a NIAC;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the VP/HR, Member States and authorities of Cameroon.