Being a paper presented by Guest Speaker Christopher Ambe Shu, Publisher/Editor,of The RECORDER Newspaper,Cameroon, on June 7,on the occasion of the Association of Student Journalists,University of Buea (ASJUB) 2013 Open Day
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| Publisher/Editor Chris Ambe |
ABSTRACT
This paper discusses the topic "Contemporary Issues of Print Journalism in
Cameroon".
In other words, the paper examines the problems and challenges of the print media
industry in Cameroon with emphasis on my experience and observations as a
journalist/editor/publisher of a newspaper,The Recorder. The re-introduction of multi-party
politics/democracy in Cameroon in 1990 came along with the (re)birth of a
multiplicity of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations and their
associated problems.
This paper not only examines
the constraints faced by the Cameroon print media in the performance of its
professional tasks, but it also makes some recommendations.
INTRODUCTION
The importance of a
vibrant and critical media in any country that is bent on enhancing development
and improving the lot of its citizens, ensuring good governance and
transparency, cannot be overemphasized
It is no secret that a
vibrant press is a development agent. This is why Thomas Jefferson, third
President of the United States of
America and the spiritual father of the US Bill of Rights, on January 16, 1787
is on record to have said,
“…were it left to me to decide whether we
should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without the a
government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”
The media is a market
place of ideas. And development advocates hold strongly that public opinion is
very essential in the development of any society through the exchange of ideas
on debates on important and or controversial issues. With censorship, certain
views will never be read or aired. Hence, there is need for a free press. Cameroon enjoys greater freedom of the press,
when compared to many other African countries. But, unfortunately, newspapers -time
and again-take advantage of their freedom and publish lies and gossip that could
mislead the people. "The press is impotent when it abandons itself to
falsehood” -Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Seymour, 1807
With freedom of the press
(guaranteed by the Constitution of Cameroon) now a reality in Cameroon, the country
has hundreds of newspapers and magazines.
DEFINITION
OF PROBLEMS OF PRINT JOURNALISM
A problem here is defined as “a matter or
situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and
overcome”.
The Cameroon print media has so many problems.
But I would like to discuss ten (10) major ones under the following
sub-headings:
1) Inadequate funding,
2) Access to Information; 3) Charlatanism; 4) Poor Readership 5) Poor payment of staff 6) Distribution & Circulation 7) Weak
Professional associations, 8) Copy Rights Violations
9) Internet and Social Media 10)Sole-proprietorship.
1) INADEQUATE FUNDING
This is a very
serious problem facing the print media in Cameroon. Many publishers including
the one speaking hardly get enough funding to kick start and sustain the smooth
running of their newspaper or magazines. This is not to say that there are no
financial institutions that give loans. They are quite many, but the conditions
for obtaining a loan are cumbersome to satisfy. As such few publishers succeed
to secure loans and many others resort to other sources such as the family for
financial assistance. For example, I started publishing The Recorder in 2007,
with funds from my family. Of course; I did not get enough funds to keep going.
So in 2008, the paper almost folded up. That year I did not publish even one
edition, only to resurface in 2009.
You know
advertisement is the backbone of any media organ. But companies, Institutions
and individuals here in Cameroon are hesitant to place adverts in newspapers
for various reasons. Lack of sufficient
financing has caused many papers to be irregular on the newsstands, thereby not
respecting their registered periodicity. Elsewhere, governments give
substantial financial support to the media. In Cameroon, the so-called
Government assistance to the media is ridiculously too small. Imagine a
government package of 135 million Fcfa to be shared NOT ON EQUAL BASIS to
over 600 media organs. Imagine a newspaper receiving 300,000Fcfa from the state
as subvention per year after spending the same amount or more to satisfy the
required conditions.
2)
ACCESS TO INFORMATION.
For a newspaper to
sell like hot cake, that paper needs to go for the type of news that will
certainly interest the readership .But in Cameroon, access to sensitive information
concerning the Government and or other official sources remains a herculean
task, despite the fact that Law
no.90/052 of December 19, 1990 on Freedom on Mass Communication gives
Journalists the right to access information. Section 48 (1) of the above cited law states “Unless otherwise provided by law
and regulations, Persons shall be free to have access to official documents.
Section 48(2) defines the documents concerned as “files,reports,studies,minutes,statistics,directives,instructions,circulars,memoranda
and all documents relating to acts of positive law"
Cameroon journalists
including this speaker have passed and are passing through hell to get
sensitive information-giving them room for speculations and falsehood in some
reports. Just visit, for example, the vice-Chancellor of University of Buea and
introduce yourself as an investigative reporter needing documents to
investigate the management of the school budget. You may be surprised to hear
her tell that she needs an authorization from Hierarchy to let you do that. Or,
that they have received instruction not to talk to journalists. You must have
learnt that a general manager(GM) here in Cameroon was asked how oil money was
being put to use for the common interest and he bluntly told the inquisitive journalist
that he(the GM) was only answerable to the Head of State on oil matters. Examples abound.
3)
CHARLATANISM
Who is a
charlatan? A charlatan or quack is a master of lies. Wikipedia ,the free online Encyclopedia defines a charlatan as “is a person
practicing quackery
or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, fame
or other advantages via some form of pretense
or deception
Dear
students,
I must tell you that, the journalism profession is quack-infested.
When you
graduate from JMC to become journalists tomorrow, this is the group of people
you will meet also practicing. Some of them don’t know the ABC of journalism.
But they will sweet-talk you into believing that they are masters of the art,
whereas they are masters of deception. They drag the profession in to mud,
often committing all kinds of professional errors and, making it difficult for
real journalists to command their due respect in society .In Yaounde, where
there are just so many people passing
for journalists, these quacks are commonly called Hilton Journalists
I have
realized that the doors to journalism practice have been left wide-open to charlatans
by our own media law. Law no.90/052 of
December 19, 1990 on Mass Communication in its Section 46(1) states: “A person shall be deemed to be a journalist
where, on the basis of his intellectual faculties, his training and talents, he
is RECOGNIZED as being fit to carry out research and process information
intended for mass communication.”
From
this definition of a journalist, we see that the identity of the authority
qualifying someone as a journalist is hidden…. “He is recognized as being fit”.
By who? Is it the publisher? The Radio or TV owner or the state?
Indeed,
the Cameroonian definition of a journalist has paved the way for charlatanism.
Therefore, don’t be surprised that when you graduate from here and you are
lucky to be employed somewhere as a journalist, you may meet a so-called colleague
who does not even know the ABC of the profession. Some of these charlatans have
even succeeded to head journalist associations.
4)
POOR READERSHIP
Generally, many
Cameroonians don’t read .The reading culture is not just there. Buying newspapers
or magazines is not top on their agendas. They advance all kinds of reasons to
justify their not going for the papers such high cost of newspapers, sketchy
and or poorly edited papers. Imagine the negative effect of poor sales on the
media house, which also finds it extremely hard to get adverts.
5) POOR TREATMENT OF STAFF.
Staff especially
journalists of the print media are not only poorly
but also irregularly paid for the risky job they do, especially those of
the Private media. Their working conditions are so deplorable. Quite a good
number of them don’t receive a dime as salary from their employers. And,
because they must feed themselves and their families, they resort, when on the
beat, to gombo-chasing; that is they harass and intimidate event organizers/
news sources for money-sometimes reporters even complain to news sources that
they are not paid. It is no secret that when workers are not well paid, they
hardly give their best in terms of service.
6)
DISTRIBUTION & CIRCULATION
The distribution and
circulation of papers remains a worrying problem faced by publishers. Cameroon
this far, to the best of my knowledge, has only one well -established company
in charge of the distribution of papers, which is Messa Presse with headquarters in Douala. It is the distributor
that takes papers nation-wide, especially to towns and cities. Publishers, who
don’t have distribution contracts with Messa
Presse, find it difficult to get their papers to certain areas. Thus, there
is limited distribution coverage. Publishers without such contracts then have to look for
alternative means such as public transport agencies to reach their target
readership.
Although Messa Presse takes newspapers nation-wide,
giving wide publicity to one’s newspaper,
it deducts and retains up to 40 % of
each copy of paper sold; a copy of Cameroonian newspaper sells at 400Fcfa. Imagine 40% of 400 Fcfa.Consider
that If The Recorder supplies 2000
copies to Messa presse,and the
distributor sells say 1000 copies,
that will amount to 400,000Fcfa and a deduction
of 40%(160,000Fcfa) of that amount gives the Publisher a take home of 60%(240,000Fcfa). This is quite small. Isn’t
it?
The percentage of the
commission per copy sold by other local venders other than Messa Presse is much
lesser (20% or 25 %).But Many vendors are reliable .They won’t pay all your money when
you need it, even if they were informed of your coming well in advance.
7) WEAK PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
In
Cameroon, there are journalistic
associations. We have for example, the Union of Cameroon Journalists (UCJ);
Cameroon Association of English-speaking Journalists(CAMASEJ),Cameroon Association
of Commonwealth Journalists(CACOJ), Commonwealth Journalists Association(CJA),
Cameroon Newspaper Publishers Association (CANPA) . But honestly speaking,
these associations are weak in checking the journalistic excesses. None of
these has the power to suspend from practice any journalist for professional
misconduct.
8) COPY RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
What is copyright? Simply defined, it is the
right to copy. Without copyright, people would be free to use your artistic/literary
work (e.g. muisic, paintings, photos, TV shows) without payment. For somebody
to use your artistic/creative work, that person needs to obtain permission from
you. Failure to obtain that permission amounts to copyright violation, for
which you could be sued. It should be noted that copyright covers form not idea. It applies to tangible
artistic result / “form of material expression. Copyright does not cover facts,
which are universal and not individual; but the text (wording) expressing such facts
may be covered
That not
withstanding, FAIR USE is permitted.
That is where Journalists come in. Copying is permitted, for example, for
personal use, teaching, criticism, research, news reporting and editorial use.
This requires that credit be given to the copyright owner by acknowledging them
in your reporting/or editorial use.
But when you peruse
many Cameroon papers, you see how pictures and whole articles are lifted from news
websites and reprinted without due acknowledgement given to the source. This is
professional dishonesty, which could lead to litigations were copyrights owners
to react.
The fact that some
artistic/literary work is publicly available (on the Internet), does not put it
in the public domain for free use, whether the copyright symbol is there or not.
Copyright is automatic.
9) THE INTERNET/SOCIAL MEDIA
The advent of the
internet /Social Media has greatly facilitated mass communication and research,
making the World more of a global village. And, it is obvious that people are
increasingly turning
to the Internet to get information/news especially breaking news from foreign
news websites, for free. It is reported that, about 10 % of Cameroonians are ICT
literate, and that not many Cameroon newspapers have websites. Many of those
who are ICT literate prefer to pay say 200fcfa to a cyber café to read for an
hour or so any subject of interest to them than to buy a copy of newspaper. The
Internet has given rise to citizen journalism, dramatically reduced barriers of
entry in the media industry and just anybody can now report happenings directly
to the public, without first submitting their copy for editorial reviews and
approval. Bloggers now just break news, which before the advent of ICT/Internet
would have been the privileged place of the traditional media (radio, TV and
the newspapers to do. Starting a news site is not costly, compared to what it
takes to launch a newspaper or magazine.
10) SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP
Many
Cameroon newspapers are run as sole proprietorship, with all its limitations. In sole proprietorship, such as The Recorder,
an individual owns and manages the business almost alone, and he is responsible
for all business transactions, plus editorial contents. The publisher who is
also the owner is personally responsible for all debts and liabilities incurred
by the business. There is no problem if the paper owner is financially viable,
but in a situation like ours where many publishers are school leavers, without sufficient
funds, running a newspaper a lone poses real management problems. When you look
at the mastheads of many English newspapers, you realize the publisher is
simultaneously the editor; he is equally the ace reporter. This is journalistic
trinity-three persons in one. But you know there is need for division of labor
in well-established businesses if success is the target goal.
There are many reasons for going solo as a
publisher, but a common reason given by publishers is that they haven’t succeeded
to attract other investors, probably because of a lack of a business plan.
RECOMMENDATIONS
There is no doubt that this paper recognizes the
major contributions of the print media industry to Cameroon’s democratization and
development, which should be a subject of discussion some other day.
But to empower the Cameroon print media more,
the following recommendations should be taken seriously:
1. As concerns
funding, the Government should consider the print media especially the
Independent papers as a veritable development partner and increase
substantially state subvention to them. The Government should ask state-owned
companies/government services to place adverts in the independent print media
if they find it necessary, since a good proportion of Cameroonians rely on the
private media for information
2. Publishers of
Newspapers/magazines should henceforth stop the financial exploitation or gross
underpayment of their staff including journalists. Suitable salaries for all journalists
will no doubt cause them shun or at least reduce the incidences of professional
malpractices such as gombo-chasing.
3. Access to information. Government services/Institutions/companies
-which all constitute important news sources, should be regularly educated on
the role of the journalist in society and told emphatically that, journalists,
are by law free to have access to official documents unless otherwise provided
by law and regulations. Such documents include:reports,studies,minutes,statistics,directives,instructions,circulars,memoranda
and all documents relating to acts of positive law. Where access is
unjustifiably denied, the journalist should file a court action seeking for an
order to do so. That way, other public office holders sitting on top of information
of public interest would sit up.
4. Charlatnism. Journalism is a profession
and any profession has minimum entry requirements and is regulated. Just like
the lawyer’s profession or that of the medical doctor, the legal definition of
who is a journalist in Cameroon must be urgently reviewed, so to ward off quack
journalists if the integrity of journalism must be maintained.
5. Weak associations of journalists. The
purpose of professional associations is primarily to ensure professional
excellence and solidarity. There is no need to have toothless associations. The
various associations of journalists and publishers should be strengthened and
made more useful to the needs of the profession
6. Circultion and Distribution. Conscious
of the difficulties publishers face to get their papers nation-wide, and
considering that the print media has remained a veritable development partner,
the Government should establish a distribution agency that will be of
assistance to publishers. Or, it should subsidize the cost of distribution and
reduce the cost of newsprint. That way, the cost price per copy of a 12-page
tabloid may come to 200Fcfa, and that will encourage more people to read.
7. Copy rights violations.
Many journalists /editors, it appears, have simply forgotten or are still to
learn what copyrights are-the reason why they violate copy rights in their
reporting or editorial contents. Media houses must therefore be well-educated
on copy rights laws, so to free them from plagiarizing, which is a crime.
8. The Internet/Social
Media are in vogue. Many publishers should create news sites or blogs to give
breaking news and updates. That too will help to publicize media organs. It is
now said that any journalist who is not ICT literate, is no journalist.
9.
Publishers who are sole proprietors with insufficient funds, who want to
succeed well, must consider pooling their resources together and forming
partnership. In partnership and with a good management strategy, they will
easily overcome their difficulties.
CONCLUSION
Not withstanding the
various problems plaguing journalism in Cameroon, journalism still remains a
noble profession, conscious of its informative, educative, critical and entertainment
roles. You must have heard that journalists are the watch dogs of society and
the mirror of society.
Both the civil society and the powers that be
should continue encouraging responsible and objective journalism. Empowering
the press should, therefore, be the responsibility of all.
Thank you for your
Kind attention.
God bless you all.
