“There is no point being a diplomat in a country when you do not understand the country you are in,” were the words of the Canadian High Commissioner to Cameroon, H.E René Cremonese, during a visit to The Post Head Office in Buea on December 10.
The High Commissioner had just chaired a ceremony marking the 21st World Human Rights Day at Bilingual Grammar School, BGS Molyko, Buea.
The Diplomat, who is in Africa for the first time, and has been in Cameroon for two weeks, had a friendly discussion with The Post’s Editor-in-Chief, Charles Ndi Chia.
The High Commissioner sought to know the type of relationship that exists between The Post and the Government of Cameroon, vis-à-vis the fact of the paper’s rather critical stance on certain issues of governance. He wondered if The Post was prone to running into trouble with the regime for stoking the critical flames of controversy.
“We hit hard but we are very credible,” Ndi Chia told him, hence, “there exists a cordial understanding between The Post and the Government. Although the may not be always happy with the sometimes rabble-rousing nature of the paper, at least, we can say with some good measure of satisfaction that the paper is on no one’s beck and call. “We may have a few moles or understandable deviants in the house, but when the chips are down, the watchword here is that gutter journalism stinks and is not tolerated at The Post.”
The two men also discussed how The Post is matching with the new communication trends such as “twitter”, “facebook”, “myspace” and others, which the Editor-in-Chief explained; “The paper is basically catching up with trending media technology. We operate an interactive website, which we are looking forward to refurbish and render even more up to date and functional in the days ahead.”
An upbeat Ndi Chia assured the High Commissioner that despite the lean times and an advertising sector that is not reciprocal and which seeks to dictate every term to its unfair advantages… “we still have many plans in life and one of them is not to die as a newspaper.”
Delving into international issues, H.E Cremonese, sought to understand if The Post newspaper had connections with international media organisations. He was told that, The Post has always enjoyed good relations especially with diplomatic missions in Cameroon and that many of its reporters have, in the past, benefitted from training programmes abroad, thanks to the goodwill of some of these missions.
The Editor-in-Chief added that he, personally was pretty active in the media scene, especially in Africa, especially when matters relating to training media funding and freedoms come into play.
On the aspect of training, Ndi Chia told Cremonese that the newspaper has trained a good number of journalists, some who came in from Europe, who, today, are manning big media houses and holding important positions in renowned organisations both in Cameroon and certain multinational organizations. Others, he noted, are even training other journalists in renowned journalism institutions.
The two men discussed a host of other issues, after which the Canadian High Commissioner left The Post newsroom apparently delighted that the newspaper is indispensable in the country, when it comes to balanced and credible reporting.
