Elvis Tah
18 April 2008
Buea — Four journalists of both the private and public press, met at Alliance Franco-Camerounaise, recently for an interactive talk on the challenges of the Cameroon Media landscape.
The journalists were, ace reporter, Suzanne Kala Lobe, of La Nouvelle Expression, a French newspaper, and of Canal 2 International, a private TV station in Douala, Veteran journalist and Editor-In-Chief of The Post newspaper, Charly Ndi Chia, Yves Mark Medjo and Telesphore Mba Bisso of CRTV Buea.
Speaking on the evolution of the press in Cameroon, Charly Ndi Chia said the private press before the 1990 'wind of change' was nonexistent. Ndi Chia held that during that era, there existed a central body that was strictly manipulated and controlled by the government, known as 'Cameroun Publie Expansion'.
He stated that this body had the exclusive authority to dictate the tune of adverts thus, he added, all the private press were at its beck and call, which caused the private press to flounder.
The veteran maintained that most of the private press during the era were practising advocacy journalism. "Whoever had money could set up a paper to propel his course. The true journalist didn't run a newspaper for business purpose; it was rather to set a political agenda and because of that most of them failed."
Ndi Chia asserts that though the private press has gained grounds in recent times, it is still very lame, given that some proprietors do not pay their staffers well and because of that, some journalists of the private press are beggarly.
In relation to government subventions to the press, Ndi Chia said FCFA 150 million was given as subvention to the entire press, an amount he referred to as minimal considering the number of media in the country.
He stated, "What the government can do to help the private press is to reduce taxes on them".For her part, Kala Lobe said journalists should have a critical mind and should not always submit to the manner of approach dictated by their boss. To Kala Lobe, journalists should be able to criticise and give their boss reasons why they think a particular approach should be employed.
Reacting to a statement made by Yves Mark Medjo, that there is a natural reticent of the public to give information of general interest to CRTV as opposed to the private press.
She said a good journalist is that who looks for information and does not wait for informants.
Ndi Chia corroborates Kala Lobe's argument by saying that "access to information is synonymous to general. It is left for every journalist to dig out information. He added that CRTV can always have access to government information because they are going to serve it to the taste of the government but with the private press, it will be analysed and twisted.
"In the same token, the private press, which is branded opposition press, can easily have access to information from the general public.Meanwhile, Medjo refuted claims that CRTV commercialises its coverage. He said they go for news of general interest and the state funds only 80 percent of its coverage.
The Southwest Provincial Delegate of Communication, Wilfred Nkong Makoge, Bouddih Adams, Executive Editor of The Sun newspaper and a host of journalists were present during the session. It was moderated by Telesphore Mba Bisso.
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