Collective Contracts, the Press and Government

By Tazoacha Asonganyi in Yaounde.

The talk in town now is about the noises coming out of the rubber-stamp parliament that as usual has completed its job of letting garbage in and letting it out virtually dressed in the same robes.

With the deafening empty talk from the glass house, let us not forget the convention between journalists, their employers and the government. We should not forget it because, whereas the other “estates” are gagged by one man, at least this one can still bark, even if the caravan still passes with mocking pride!

There is no doubt that most journalists in Cameroon have a deplorable financial and social situation. Indeed, if we judge them with the standards of the public servants who go to their offices daily to paint their nails, shave their beards or lay ambush for those who come to seek public service, the verdict would be unequivocal: journalists earn too little for the much work they do in the interest of all of us.

But there is much doubt as to whether the solution to this can come from collective conventions to guarantee better salaries, especially through government subventions to the press. Judging from the performance of public media like CRTV and Cameroon Tribune that receive huge government subventions, it is clear that such subventions only open a trunk road towards further gagging of this other estate.

The commodities usually sold by the media are news and good ideas. Then there is the advert to fund the activities, including salaries for the journalists. The rule is simple: adverts are there if the public and private sectors are vibrant, and if there is democratic governance. We shall use advertising in some randomly selected Nigerian and Cameroonian newspapers to illustrate this.

The Saturday Punch (Nigeria) of 18 October 2008 had 64 pages, sold for N100 (400 FCFA) and carried 17 full pages, 10 half pages, 5 quarter pages and 1 eighth page of mainly coloured adverts. The Vanguard (Nigeria) of 14 November 2008 had 56 pages, sold for N100 (400 FRS) and carried 24 full pages, 1 half page, 1 quarter page and 6 eighth pages of mainly coloured adverts.

The Post (Cameroon) of 5 December 2008 had 12 pages, sold for 400 FRS, and carried 2 full pages, 1 half page, 1 quarter page, 1 sixth page, 1 eighth page and 1 twenty fourth page of adverts. The Eden (Cameroon) of 1 October 2008 had 12 pages, sold for 400 FRS and carried 2 full pages of advertorials and 1 page of advert.

The Herald (Cameroon) of 27 November 2008 had 12 pages, sold for 400 FRS and carried no adverts. “Le Jour du Samedi” (Cameroon) of 6 December 2008 had 16 pages, sold for 400 FRS and carried 3 full pages and 3 eighth pages of adverts. Mutations (Cameroon) of 17 November 2008 had 12 pages, sold for 400 FRS and carried 2 full pages and 5 quarter pages of adverts. “Le Messager" (Cameroon) of 5 December 2008 had 12 pages, sold at 400 FRS and carried 3 full pages, 1 half page, 2 quarter pages and 2 eighth pages of adverts. Cameroon Tribune (Government sponsored) of 18 August 2008 had 32 pages, sold for 400 FRS and carried 7 full pages, 5 half pages, 2 quarter pages and 3 eighth pages of adverts.

There is a marked difference between the Nigerian and Cameroonian sources of adverts in that there is great diversity in the sources in Nigeria. This is due mainly to the vibrant private sector in Nigeria and the far-reaching decentralisation programme with 36 states headed by elected governors, plus Abuja the federal capital territory; the further division of states into 774 Local Government Areas each headed by an elected “Chairman”; and simmering economic and political activities in each state and Local Government Area.
Indeed, in Nigeria, there is not only inter-state competition, but there is also intra-state competition between politicians and the various suppliers of goods and services. This is a goldmine for adverts and advertorial reporting which flood the news media in Nigeria. Compare this to Cameroon where there is just one miserable centre of power in Yaounde!

Without wishing to be the pessimist, I think the media can only give what they have, except perhaps to declare bankruptcy as some are already doing in advert-rich milieus. Like the “performance contracts” that attracted a lot of energy and noise from New Deal outfits before, the collective contract will come to naught because it is not based on any solid foundation. The private sector will remain moribund because of high taxes, stinking corruption and the one-party mentality imposed on our society by outdated and visionless leadership.
The people have always been the only significant long-term threat to the hegemony of all dictatorships.

Therefore dictatorial governments always consider citizens who are able to think for themselves as subverts, preferring a flock of timid citizens for whom the governments provides enlightened leadership.

This is why the press whose mission is to educate citizens is never in the good books of dictatorial governments. Therefore we are not likely to see a media-friendly tax system; and there is not likely to be any government subvention to the media without strings. Further, even subventions with strings may turn out to be like the government subventions to private education that is on paper but nearly never in reality!

With no vibrant private sector, with the exclusion of free, democratic competition and with the cosmetic decentralisation that leaves only one centre of power, journalists will continue to live in hardship in 2009, and beyond. But like Cameroon that has lived under sustained hardship and plundering for decades without dying, the media can never be out under hardship.Indeed, their present performance is commendable.

Under the present hardship, the journalists should spend New Year 2009 pondering this saying of Mao Tse-tung: “So many deeds cry out to be done, and always urgently. The world rolls on. Time passes. Ten thousand years are too long. Seize the day; seize the hour”.

To seize the day and the hour, we need vigorous, new leadership in politics as in industry, in science as in protest, and more importantly, in the media, to run our society according to the people’s will, not power’s whim. We too need an open, democratic, decentralised and vibrant society so that journalists and the rest of us can work as proud, healthy, dignified and prosperous citizens!