By Asong Ndifor
 |
| Mr. Asong Ndifor |
My dear honourable Issa Tchiroma Bakary,
Minister of Communication, spokesman of the New Deal Government, Chairman of
the CRTV board of directors and President of Front for the National Salvation
of Cameroon party. The issue I address to you in this open letter is not
about your director of media observatory Atangana Mandi who says “Anglophones
are incompetent”. The Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and CPDM political
apostles of “national integration” can handle that provocative insult in a
people better than my humble self.
The subject I put before you
is the “role of the press in a democracy”. I know you are not a journalist. But
your assignment as government’s spin doctor, a duty you enjoy with your
dexterity in French and English, coupled with your other job as chair of CRTV board,
makes you an important member of the journalism Ivy league club.
What is your reaction when Press Club, a programme on CRTV Buea is
suspended at the caprice of civil servants crawling to conceal the truth?
Wouldn’t you be the one to explain to the nation and the world
made a global village by the media, if the press freedom index for Cameroon
disgracefully nose dives?
Isn’t it the image of our
dear country that is tarnished? Would foreign investors not hesitate to
put their money in a country where they perceive the press can be stifled even
by people on the fringes
of power?
At the risk of tedious
repetition, my concern as a patriot and nationalist, is not about”land
grabbing”, although it pricks the consciences of God-fearing people. My worry
pivots on press freedom. It is about the liberty to expose thieves, embezzlers,
terrorists, armed robbers, chiefs and civil servants who use their offices to cheat,
or to borrow from President Biya, to acquire “elicit enrichment”. I am sure you
will agree with me that the public has a right to know the crooks, pen-robbers
and hooligans in public office.
It is the ordained role of reporters to do that irrespective of those whose ox
is gored.
As an opinionated journalist, I invite you to share the thought of my
favourite writer on the issue, Nick Ragone: “In a democracy, the free flow of
information, ideas, and opinions is critical. To this end, the media have three
primary responsibilities: setting the agenda, investigating the institutions of
government, and facilitating the exchange of ideas and opinions.” I may also add
Thomas Jefferson
who said he did rather have a free press than a government without newspapers.
The journalists, not the government, be they in newspapers, magazines,
television, radio or the World Wide Web, set the agenda, they decide what
stories or opinions to serve the public with. My journalism teacher at Cardiff,
United Kingdom, defined news as “something somewhere somebody wants to hide,
all the others are public relations and advertising”. Others say news is when
“a man bites a
dog” or when a minister sneezes.
There is no strict
scientific technique to decide what the public should know. What The Eye for
instance, will view as a scoop will not pass through the editorial filter of
Cameroon Tribune. Both serve the public, as diverse as that public is. Both are
open to criticism. We all can not see things from the same perception even when
reporterspeep into stinking closets. The agenda of investigative journalism
which scares so many officials with reeking skeletons in their cupboards
started since the 1800s by reporters dubbed “muckrakers”. They exposed public
corruption and social injustices like the Fako land scandal. All attempts to
stifle the media have crumbled. The Press Club is in spirit more alive and more
powerful than its detractors ever imagined. Journalists, like the Pope derive
their power from moral authority difficult to conquer.
Even General Napoleon Bonaparte conceded that he feared four newspapers “more
than a thousand bayonets”. Richard Nixon was pushed off the seat of the most
powerful presidency on earth by two junior reporters. The press, though not as
“holy” as the Father in the Vatican, will forever be victorious in its anointed
mission scrutinising the executive, judiciary and legislature to ensure a society
of equity, justice and peace.
I am sure, monsieur le ministre, you share this democratic view. If you
do, posterity, Cameroonians and militants of your opposition party will be very
delighted if you can instruct the physical resumption of
Press Club, which I said earlier, flourishes in spirit which cannot be gagged.
That action will count you among the victors and those who stand by the truth.
Yours
very truly, Asong Ndifor
Post Script: “When the public's right to know is
threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all
of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered” - Christopher Dodd
ends
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
