Security intensifies as CRTV journalist receives death threats

Jonas Matute Menyoli, a journalist with the South West Regional Station of the Cameroon Radio and Television CRTV in Buea has disclosed that anonymous calls from a voice he has identified as female have continued to threaten his life.

The calls he explained in a chat with Cameroon Web News reporter have reached an alarming stage and he has lost the privacy he once enjoyed with his family as gun-totting uniformed men have been dispatched by local authorities to guard his residence.

In phone calls that can hardly be described as conducive the journalist disclosed that he’d been shouted upon at instances by this strange caller and as a journalist who’s used to asking the questions rather than providing answers to rudely put questions, he found this very eerie.

The soft-spoken journalist however explains that this dangerous situation is not unconnected with the fact that he is panelist and moderator of a weekly programme dubbed Press Club, a Saturday morning programme aired over the CRTV Buea Regional Station. In an upfront manner, he explained that the attacks may be linked to the sensitive issues that have been tackled recently by the Saturday morning slot.

The seasoned journalist narrowed the possibilities down to two main issues; the Fako Land Crisis Saga and the 50th Anniversary Celebrations of Reunification that took place in a not too far distant past in Buea.

On the Fako land crisis issue, he said a lot of very touchy issues touching on the Fako Land crisis have been discussed during Press Club. “…The Fako Land Crisis has actually touched on so many people including the elite and top administrative officials that you can understand that so many of them are not comfortable with what we have discussing on the crisis” he intimated. He has continuously harped on the necessity for projects of the reunification celebrations to be completed.

This journalist has so far received 14 calls and messages all of them threatening his life and that of his family. Following a tip off from an unidentified individual that his family was going to be attacked, Matute said he decided to call in uniformed men. The unidentified person who tipped him off said his family was going to be attacked by a team coming in from Yaounde. Since then, the bedeviled journalist has suddenly found his home under tight security.

The high profiled radio slot which receives guests from all over the SouthWest Region and beyond has been a great job at educating,informing and entertaining the anxious listeners and it is the wish of many that it goes on thus. Menyoli himself who is the target here says that journalism is a profession of continuous threats but in his characteristic style sees no reason why this should deter journalist in the practice of their duties.