The public aid to private communication that was instituted to enhance the development of the private media in Cameroon has not been allowed to trickle down fully to the deserving beneficiaries.
The aid package that amounted to FCFA 240 million in 2014, The Post learnt, has been at the mercy of the Ministry of Communication.
Although the Ministerial Order number: 017/MINCOM of September 23, 2002, that instituted the aid spells out very clear criteria that must be fulfilled by the various press organs, the attribution of the money has been, somewhat, arbitrary.
The Post learnt that even when the commission for the distribution of the aid meets; it is still the unilateral decision of the Minister and his collaborator as to which organ gets how much.
This explains why some people create newspapers and “associations overnight just to grab aid. “It is difficult to understand that aid is given to mushroom press organs, epileptic publications and associations that exist only on paper,” one journalist who asked not to be named told The Post.
He said such a situation lends credence to allegations that officials in the Ministry use their agents to create fake news organs and association groups to grab the aid.
From every indication, the so called aid to the media seems to be just funds for a fraternity of friends of a "mafia" that is managing it. For one thing, observers are at a loss as to what criteria are used to attribute the aid in terms of daily newspapers, bi-weekly and weekly newspapers.
What obtains now is that epileptic publications whose offices are in the briefcases of their publishers get more money than some regular and prominent newspapers. It is reported that some people create newspapers and abandon publishing as soon as they get the money, only to resurface the next year to get the aid again.
Many journalists told The Post that the levity with which the money is given out to some “quacks” enables them to embezzle public funds with impunity. They do not render account to anybody. When the aid was paid out to the various organs on Friday, October 24, 2014, many bars were full with many “journalists” who had just collected the money. It was the endless flow of beer.
According to a study by the Cameroon Journalists Trade Union, many people use the money to invest in other businesses, not in the media. Going by the order of the Minister of Communication that instituted the aid, the money should be used to buy equipment and build capacities of workers in the media organs.
By virtue of its Article 18, the Ministerial text also empowers the Minister of Communication to sanction defaulters who embezzle the aid by using it for order things. News organs that violate professional ethics, according to the Ministerial order, are not supposed to benefit from the grant. Yet, some organs that are known to have thrown professional ethics to the dogs get more money.
Article 19 of the Ministerial order states clearly that the sitting allowances of the commission members are supposed to be paid from the budget of the Ministry of Communication. But, what obtains is that part of the aid is used to pay allowances to the commission members.
The Post learnt that until recently, the commission used to hold two meetings for the members to properly line their pockets. They used to organise cocktail parties and, by the time they start giving out the grant, a circa FCFA 15 to 20 million would have gone into private pockets.
Observers hold that some members in the commission represent only themselves and their stomachs. They are both party and judge at the same time because they come purposely to represent their radio stations, newspaper agencies and in certain cases, single-member associations, without any iota of objectivity.
When the aid was instituted in 2003, there were not many applications. But when adventurers discovered that they could easily grab the money without fulfilling the conditions, they came in their numbers. Given the avalanche of complaints from journalists, the National Anti-corruption Commission, CONAC, invited various actors in a meeting in February 2012, to evaluate the impact of the aid on the private media.
Journalists who attended the meeting told CONAC officials in unequivocal terms that the aid has only helped to swell the pockets of some individuals and the corrupt mafia that is managing it. CONAC later sent an observer to the Media-Aid Commission but nothing changed.
According to the Vice President of the Cameroon Union of Journalists, CUJ, Nta a Bitang, the aid has not helped the press. The veteran journalist told the press recently that even the appellation, “Public Aid To Private Communication,” is a problem because it is supposed to be called, “Subvention To The Private Press” and nothing else.
Nta a Bitang posited that the press should be singled out for special treatment because it has an important public service mission. To him, printing presses, advertising agencies and associations that all benefit from the Media Aid are not of the same pedestal of importance with the news organs.
Speaking to the press after the Media Aid Commission deliberated last Thursday, the Minister of Communication said the aid was Ggovernment’s own way of enhancing the economic viability of the media in Cameroon.
