By Aminateh Nkemngu
NI John FRU Ndi |
The
month of May is an eventful one in Cameroon. If not for anything, but for the
fact that it carries four significant celebrations for Cameroonians who enjoy
“enjoyment” especially beer drinking. And this “enjoyment” usually begins with
Labour Day celebrations. Far from being a moment for workers in diverse fields
to articulate work related issues, it is usually the day to forget all
frustrations on the job and go merry making. And then comes the 3rd
of May, otherwise referred to as “World Press Freedom Day”. For some unexplained
reasons ,journalists and media houses in Cameroon usually shy away from labour
day, only to come out two days later on 3rd May ,to make a lot of
noise about press freedom ,oftentimes without addressing working conditions in
their respective media houses, as many as they are. But this does not in any
way cancel the fact that the world over, press freedom is a measuring instrument of democratic progress .Then comes 20th
May, the National Day when all Cameroonians celebrate as one people
irrespective of region of origin ,ethnicity
, race, religion,polticial affiliation or any other social variable. Under normal
circumstances, National Day is the most important in the life of every nation,
as is rightly the case with Cameroon, especially in the face of the Boko Haram
War. But some “misguided “individuals have continued to hang on to colonial
cleavages and vestiges to sow seeds of discord. Finally, but more subjectively
is the 26th of May ,which is the birth day of the SDF party, already
going down in history as Cameroon’s leading oppositions party for more than 25
years. This will formally be confirmed on 26 May when the party celebrates its
silver jubilee in Bamenda, its birth place on 26th May 2015.The
sensitivity of this issue can be reflected in an article captioned “SDF 25TH
Anniversary; “Founding Militants Want Fru Ndi Out”, published on page 6 of The
Sun Newspaper No 0312 of Monday April 20, 2015.The reactions to the said
article is not only mind bugling, but has also pushed the author of the article
to revisit it. During a brief private stay to the South West Region recently,
the said article came under a lot of debate to the point where the publisher
and editor of the Sun Newspaper both received several calls on the position of
the article that “founding militant want Fru Ndi out at 25th
anniversary”. That’s not all, the national media including CRTV ,Canal
2,LTM,STV and several local radio stations in Bamenda and the South West region as well as newspaper readers ,TV
viewers and radio listeners have taken
much interest and reacted diversely to the story including dictating what ought
to have been written and who ought to have been quoted. And all of these
debates bring us back to the story; Firstly, the article was written in a
particular context, the National Executive Committee Meeting, NEC, whose sole
agenda was to discuss the 25th anniversary of the party. The author
of the article was physically present at the gathering. In fact the Chairman of
the organizing committee, Honourable Awudu Mbaya Cyprian and the National
chairman of the SDF, Ni John Fru Ndi are extensively quoted in the article.
Secondly,
the article made mention of “founding militants” and not “founding fathers”. In
as much as stereotyped readers might have erroneously understood “founding
militants “ to mean the same as “founding
fathers,” the article simply broke the stereotype and took the debate out of
the box. This means that away from the “Founding fathers” who have all along
taken to the rostrum, several or many “founding militants” or those who were at
‘Liberty Square” when the party was launched in 1990 and who have braved the
“labourious existence “ Awudu Mbaya referred to are still alive and have also found time to
air their opinion on the functioning of the party. Afterall, the author of the
article was a primary school pupil on 26 May 1990.
Thirdly,
many newspaper readers cum “professors of journalism “who have never taken a
single lecture on journalism have claimed that the article did not quote any
militants. But they must also be reminded of the sacrosanct principle of
protection of sources especially in such a sensitive context where
witch-hunting can set in as is now proving. This issue is particularly
addressed in section 50(1) of law no 90/52 of 19 December 1990 which states
that “journalists and their collaborators shall not be bound to disclose their
source of information”. Section 47(1) of the same law states that “a journalist
shall be bound to process information in an objective and responsible manner”.
The chairman of the anniversary organizing committee, Honourable Awudu Mbaya
Cyprian and party chairman Ni John Fru Ndi are widely quoted in the write-up.
Why must there be emphasis on the release of the identity of the “founding
militants” contrary to section 50(1) of the law just quoted above, if not for
ulterior motives by self seeking individuals?
Furthermore,
the reaction to the story is an indicator that the article and the newspaper
are widely read, contrary to doomsday prophets who have undertaken to attack the
newspaper and not the issue. Above all, even in mass communication theory in
university lecture halls, ”Agenda Setting “ is one of such theories. Without prejudice,
the article has only successfully ignited a debate on the “information market
place”. This could just be a good research topic for the roadside “journalism
professors” to go back to the laboratory .After all, the position of National
Chairman of the SDF is elective, and only the militants can decide who stays
and who goes.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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