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Cameroon: As Happy as a Publisher
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Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
22 April 2008
Posted to the web 22 April 2008
Tche Irene Morikang
In Cameroon, the days of official censorship are gone. Newspapers with scrambled words or blank pages are museum pieces. Journalists are free to write what they want, when they want and how they want it; granted they are backed by facts. However, this new found freedom is having a threat of another type. We are talking about people who deliberately decide to stop the public from having access to some particular published information.
And how is this be possible, you might ask? Well, it's very simple. If you think a certain edition of a newspaper carries information that augurs ill for your reputation, then, simply buy all the copies of the paper from the newsstands. It happened yesterday, it is happening today, and from all indications, it will happen tomorrow.
The ordinary man will definitely shriek at the cost of such an operation. But you need not screech since targets of such write ups are generally extraordinary people. Let's work out this simple arithmetic: the average newspaper in the country cost FCFA 300. Buying 5,000 copies of the newspaper will amount to FCFA 1.5 million. And what is FCFA 1.5 million to a billionaire? Peanuts!
Some publishers are already aware of this weakness and are eating fat from scribbling a few lines on the Achilles' heel of some big "ogas". Who will not be happy to have all copies of his paper sold before 9:00am? But, can such "wholesale" buying stop an information from circulating? Your answer is as good as mine. Understandably why we are into a real vicious circle.
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