FEDIPRESSE decry media climate in Cameroon

The Federation of Cameroon Publishers (FEDIPRESSE) expressed concern about the general climate surrounding the media in Cameroon.

In a statement issued on the sidelines of the World Press Freedom Day, celebrated Sunday, this group of promoters of the private media equity finds an abundance of facade, behind which "hides a real material and moral poverty gnawing away inside a profession and an industry that are threatened in their existence".

While indicating their share of responsibility in this climate where they do not know how to surround themselves with the necessary precautions to protect their business from the chaff which takes place and multiplies the signatories of the declaration especially the multiplication of forms taken by the attacks on the freedom of press in Cameroon in the past 12 months.

"For the first time, journalists were summoned before a military court to answer facts allegedly committed in the exercise of their profession", they wrote, accusing the National Communication Council (NCC), body for self-regulation and regulation put in place by the Government, of not "be the impartial arbitrator suggested by the principle of the + peer + jurisdiction which prevails in professional honour in the profession of journalism".

Facing the slump, the publishers require that they cease all forms of intimidation, be they legal or police of journalists who do not honour Cameroon, the establishment of a fund to the press, the constitution of a true Court of peers, as well as the restoration of the commission for the issuance of the press card.