The National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies (ANTIC) has warned against the spread of false news and recalls the sanctions incurred by offenders.
“Avoid publishing or sharing unverified information at the risk of incurring a prison sentence ranging from 06 months to 02 years and / or a fine of 05 to 10 million FCFA”, specifies the message sent to telephone subscribers portable.
The law on cyber security in Cameroon, in force since December 21, 2010, provides in its article 78 (1) that: “Is punished by imprisonment from six (06) months to two (02) years and a fine of 5,000,000 (five million) to 10,000,000 (ten million) FCFA or one of these two penalties only, one who publishes or propagates by electronic communications or an information system, a new without being able to provide proof of its truth or to justify that he had good reason to believe the truth of the said news.”
“The penalties provided for in paragraph 1 above are doubled when the offense is committed with the aim of undermining public peace”, specifies for its part, paragraph 2 of the same text.
Before the ANTIC, the Minister of Communication also reminded Cameroonians in a tweet that this is not the time for “irresponsible jokes” about COVID-19, inviting the authors of false news on the treatment of disease to end it. Since the outbreak of Covid 19, soo much fake information is circulating on the social media leaving vulnerable persons confused on the actions to take to combat the pandemic
