Cameroon bans opposition English language TV channel

Cameroon has banned people from watching a popular television station that says it represents the interests of the English-speaking population.

Cable TV providers have been told they will be sanctioned if they do not stop broadcasting the South Africa-based channel, SCBC.

There have been months of protests by Cameroon’s Anglophone population against what they say is discrimination by the Francophone majority.

SCBC, or the Southern Cameroons Broadcasting Corporation, airs programmes about the history and culture of the Anglophone region, as well as interviews with exiled lawyers and documentaries about human rights abuses in Cameroon, a BBC correspondent says.

He adds that the ban, announced by Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma, has had the unintended effect of giving free publicity to SCBC and has led to people trying to find the channel online.

The government has tried and failed to persuade the South African authorities to stop SCBC broadcasts.

In theory, people could be arrested for watching the channel, our correspondent says, as some have already been detained for having videos and text messages on their phones relating to the Anglophone protests.

The divisions in the country date back to the post-colonial settlement.

Cameroon was colonised by Germany and then split into British and French areas after World War One.

Following a referendum, British-run Southern Cameroons joined the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon in 1961. The area is now divided between North-West and South-West regions.

A second British-run area, Northern Cameroons, voted to join English-speaking Nigeria.