Bobiokono also disagrees with Tchiroma over Afrique Media

Despite a correspondent last week by Issa Tchiroma, Communication Minister, ordering a resumption of programming by Afrique Media TV in Cameroon, Christophe Bobiokono, one of the members of the National Communication Council, NCC, in open defiant of the minister’s order says Afrique media has not yet served and respected the one month suspension that was meted on it by the NCC.

Speaking to The Cameroon Journal, Thursday, October 08, Bobiokono insisted that though Afrique Media was suspended from broadcasting it has continued transmitting its programmes within the national territory.

Bobiokono said the suspension will be considered fully observed only when Afrique Media effectively ceases broadcasting in the Cameroon airwaves for a period of one month.

This is contrary to last week’s, Tchiroma’s call on the director of Afrique Media to resume programming in the country.

Afrique Media had in reaction to Tchiroma’s correspondence, promised on its Facebook page that its offices and production centers in Yaounde and Douala were going to be opened in the days ahead. They called on viewers to remain steadfast, boasting that they have ever since not suspended broadcasting even for one minute.

Tchiroma had on October 2, addressed two separate correspondences to the NCC and Afrique Media. In the letter addressed to Peter Essoka, NCC Vice President, the minister ordered Essoka to proceed with the removal of the seals which were used to shut down Afrique Media.

Tchiroma noted in the communique that the one-month suspension meted on the news organ expired on September 5. The media’s Cameroon programming was suspended on August 6.

However, in a reaction to Tchiroma’s letter Essoka observed that he was shocked to receive the correspondence from the ministry of communication arguing that; “It is the NCC that took the decision suspending Afrique Media. As such, it is equally us who have the preserve to uplift the sanction.”

Though acknowledging that it is the ministry of communication’s prerogative to monitor the media landscape, Essoka insisted that the ministry has no authority over the NCC because “the organ is independent.”

Going by Essoka, Tchiroma would have adopted a more diplomatic approach rather than issuing a ‘public correspondence.’

It should be recalled that following decision No. 00015/CNC of June 4, 2015, by the National Communication Council, Afrique Media was suspended for a period of one month. The media organ defied the suspension until August when the forces of law and order forcefully sealed its operations premises in Yaounde and Douala.