In Cameroon, police raid, shut down peace journalism seminar
(BONABERI, CAMEROON)—As we wrapped up the morning segment of today’s peace journalism seminar, an ominous warning came my way: the police were on their way. A few moments later, I looked outside and there they were, four uniformed police/gendarmes looking menacing and wearing, appropriately, brown shirts.

I wondered if my colleagues and I, not to mention the 28 journalists, would be arrested. However, I wasn’t frightened, only furious.

It seems they came to order us to stop the seminar immediately, which we had done anyway for our lunch break. They said that the organization sponsoring our seminar hadn’t filled out the requisite permission form in a timely fashion. In our defense, my colleagues found out about the permission form requirement yesterday, which is when they filed all of the correct paperwork at the local government officials’ offices. Our paperwork was accepted without comment or complaint.

According to journalists, the paperwork deadline was just an excuse to shut us down. One journalist I spoke to was convinced that local French-speaking authorities in Bonaberi singled us out (“discriminated against us”) because the participants were from English speaking regions, and that our topic, peace journalism, was too sensitive. I discussed this theory with six other journalists, all of whom agreed that we were targeted because of our language and subject matter. One other reporter said he wasn’t all surprised by the officials’ heavy-handed actions.

In enforcing the shut-down order, no one was arrested, and no one physically accosted. The cops let us eat lunch, then just waited around until the participants left the hotel where we were holding the seminar. 

The irony is that this is just the kind of thing we discussed during the morning session. I had the 28 participating journalists fill out a survey wherein they indicated the threat level they experience as journalists in a conflict region. One of the threats I asked them to assess (on a 1-5 scale, with 5 being the largest threat) was intimidation by government officials. After we were forced to stop, I  joked to the participants that I should have added a number 6 to the scale, representing “it’s happening right now!”

As bad as things seem in the U.S. now, or in Europe where the right wing is on the march, events like today’s underscore the preciousness of our civil liberties, including the right to peaceably assemble. It’s a right I know my Cameroonian colleagues would cherish if they can ever attain it.