SECTOR 1 obligations. Holders of public documents lack the power to share information with the public and routinely refer citizens to hard-to-reach hierarchies. Cameroon has not passed a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act or similar laws that can guarantee access to information for citizens. Over the past years, media organisations and other civil society groups have carried out intense advocacy for an FOI Act. Several draft proposals have been developed but the government has been reluctant to pass this Act or grant access to public information. In the absence of an FOI Act or rules on how to obtain information, holders of public information feel no obligation to share information with journalists. Consequently, journalists rely on their personal and professional networks or on the discretion of office holders to gain access to information such as reports and memos. Increasingly, whistleblowers leak information to the public through social media, and people have been known to frequently pass ’dirty files’ about their rivals to the media. In instances where public authorities share information with the media, particularly through press releases and media briefings, such information always serves the government agenda. 2. Lack of Protection for Journalists Panellists reported incidences where journalists have been arrested and detained in the course of newsgathering. In one infamous case, three journalists who tried to verify information on a terrorism-related story were instead confronted with questions on how the information was obtained. After deciding not to publish the story for lack of sufficient corroboration, the journalists were arrested and charged before a military court for withholding information on threats to national security. Generally, journalists feel that they are exposing themselves to persecution or harassment if they try to seek information on sensitive subjects or public services (such as the security and defence forces). 3. Lack of Accurate Information and Public Awareness A third factor that hinders access to information is the availability of information itself. Many panellists were of the view that the government lacks information on many areas of public life. For example, data is not routinely collected and stored in easily retrievable formats. Most government services still rely on paper-based systems to store data, which makes finding and retrieving information difficult and time-consuming. In addition, public information is dispersed across many departments and services, and knowing where to look is almost impossible. In the few instances where information is open to the public, such as the national archive services and land registries, lack of general awareness of these services hinders citizens access. One panellist described how frequently he uses the national archives in Yaoundé but notes that many people do not realise how much information the service holds. 18 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER CAMEROON 2018