Cameroonian mass media are slowly heading towards the right
direction…
By
Arideng A Ngon ‘’Nadege’’
INSAM-AVU (Douala- Cameroon)
Until the
promulgation of law N0 90/052 of December 19 1990 concerning
freedom of social communications, the creation and functioning
of mass media in Cameroon was still governed by laws passed
during the colonial period. Year 1990 was then the beginning of
a new era characterized by the creation of lots of private media
houses, to such an extent that today Cameroon has about 10
television channels, 30 radio stations and 60 newspapers
operating in the private sector.
For the purpose of
this assignment, I chose to visit Spectrum television (STV), a
private channel that belongs to the Spectrum Group; created in
2004, STV currently airs 24 hours a day.
During my visit at
STV, I met and discussed informally with various journalists,
but I specifically interviewed Michel Njankou, journalist and
head of the Economic and Development Department.
Nadege:
Michel, can you
please tell us what prompted the creation of your media house?
Michel
Njankou: In
contrast with what was being done in the market, we wanted to
promote what is from Africa and Cameroon; our key words are
vision and values, i.e. we want to show to the media world the
specificities of Africa and Cameroon.
Nadege:
What is your
editorial policy?
Michel
Njankou: We
focus on proximity, i.e. we mostly deal with issues of social,
economical and cultural interest and less of political issues.
We do air breaking news and lots of information, but from the
socio economical and cultural point of view.
Nadege:
How do you get your
news?
Michel
Njankou: We
do have many sources:
For local news we
use Daily newspapers, informal sources, and we also go out in
the fields to do our own researches, besides the fact that we
are very often invited to cover events.
For international
news, we listen to different radio stations (BBC, RFI etc) and
we watch foreign television channels like TV5, CNN; CFI…In fact
we are in partnership with these channels, so we broadcast
exactly what comes from them.
Nadege:
How do you assess
public reaction to your programs; do you do any public opinion
research concerning your programs? If yes how often?
Michel
Njankou: We
use various ways to assess public reaction to our programs:
CFI and other
agencies often conduct surveys to know Cameroonian people
behaviours or opinions in relation to local media in general, so
we use them as a tool.
We also have other
methods like asking viewers once a year to vote the best of our
programs, and we also take into account the number of people
interacting with us via sms or phone calls; we’ve been around
for two years now and we’ve already initiated 1 survey via an
agency.
Nadege:
Is the public
satisfied with the job you are doing as a media house?
Michel
Njankou: Yes
I think so, when I consider the number of awards we have won, as
well as informal feedbacks from various viewers. One of our
programs, “Good Morning Cameroon’’ was voted the best
program in Cameroon and we were asked to help start a similar
program is other parts of Africa.
Nadege:
How do you define
your role as a journalist?
Michel
Njankou: My
role is to (in order of importance) inform, educate and
entertain
Nadege:
Why then are you
doing less of politics? Is it not also your role to inform and
educate people in that area?
We have issues like very bad roads in
Douala, while a lot of money is being spent to supposedly build
roads and nothing is being done…
Don’t you see that you guys seem
not to be fulfilling your role?
Michel
Njankou:
Look, we have repeatedly addressed the road issue, and I can
show you documentations on that. Yet we are not doing politics
for politics sake We do not engage in being pro or against the
government. We treat all those issues from a socio-economical
point of view; we are community-oriented and we look at the
socio-economical impact of the various issues we cover.
Nadege:
What is your view
on the state of freedom of the press and the journalistic system
in Cameroon?
Michel
Njankou:
There’ve been a lot of improvements in terms of freedom of the
press in Cameroon, although much still has to be done… Things
will be OK when we will be totally free, there are things I
cannot yet say; for example, as a media house, we do not yet
have a licence, and that is the situation of many private
television channels in Cameroon, the government is supposed to
give us that licence…
Nadege:
What kind of
professional problems do you encounter as a journalist?
Michel
Njankou: The
main problem is access to institutional information; you cannot
communicate what you do not have, so we are obliged to rely on
informal sources for this kind of information.
Nadege:
Do you have any
last word to say?
Michel
Njankou: If
the government of our country can help us through a right
redistribution of audiovisual dues that are currently only given
to CRTV ( the state television), if they can issue our licence
and look at the status of journalists, then mass media in
Cameroon will become great agents for the development of the
country.
Nadege:
Thanks very much Michel.
At the light of
this interview and based on my personal observations, it is fair
to conclude that we still have a long way to go towards a fully
democratic society, where a free press can properly play its
role in the development of the community; nevertheless, when we
consider the progress that took place during the last decade,
there are reasons to be optimistic about the future of our
Nation in general and that of mass media in particular;
hopefully, the expected decisions, actions and reactions will be
taken sooner, rather than later…