Where we went wrong
“There are two sides to every story…Journalists should
be neutral”. We all are familiar with those tectonic plates of thought. Since
its creation 13 years ago, The Guardian Post has been faulted for taking
sides.
Government apologists are uncomfortable with the newspaper
because we have been consistent in exposing government creep. We have remained
constant in opposition to dumping Anglophones to the fringes of power in every
facet of public life in a regime which propagates national integration and
unity; a regime where Anglophones are collectively skewed as being incompetent
by the likes of Atangana Manda, a director in the ministry of communication.
The Guardian Post in its mission to tell the truth at all
costs has never been shy to scold the prime minister when he gets things wrong.
We believe it is through such scrutiny of government actions and officials that
President Biya himself drew inspiration and in his end of year speech last
December wondered aloud why Cameroonians should be endower with abundant
natural and human resources yet are not getting things right.
The country is plagued with unemployment, poverty,
miseries, corruption, embezzlement and the impunity by some government
officials who would want to be served by the people instead of the other way
round. The Guardian Post has in 13 years exposed and condemned them.
That side of the story has had its disciples of doom,
the devil’s advocates who have in the past sided with them to sink our thoughts,
deprive us of the oxygen of existence. The Guardian Post has been
suspended, not once by the National Communication Council under circumstances
that where viewed by lucid observers as influenced by competitors.
The suspensions were seen by media freedom watchdogs
as a violation of press freedom and free speech. But we took the sanctions
bravely; knowing that we were on a mission of justice. The penalties instead
emboldened our resolve to work harder and to remain the voice of the vast
majority of the voiceless.
There are also members of the opposition holy grail
who think that being out of government, they should hang on to the perception
that they are holier than the Pope. They oppose, oppose, but without suggesting
a better solution for the daily problems that rock the foundation of a country
hoping to emerge in 2035.
Because The Guardian Post has refused to side
with such propaganda, it has got the knocks, kicks and bruises of “getting
things wrong”. Where they fail to discuss issues, they turn their petty gossips
to personalities. They are at a loss to understand why a “small boy like Kristian
Ngah Christian” should be a force behind Cameroon’s leading English language
newspaper.
Of course, it has not been a one-man show; we have on
board an editorial crew no independent newspaper in Cameroon can muster. Our
contributors and editorial team are professional personalities whose opinions
are backed by the evidence of facts and integrity.
We have refused to sit on the fence of neutrality and have
taken sides with the truth. It is for the sake of humility that we declined to
title this editorial: “Where we went right”. The truth is, as the adage says,
bitter and those on the wrong side of it frequently misinform the public about
“where we went wrong”.
It is their view and we respect it. They are entitled
to it but that has not startled us or derailed our team from the mission to
serve our millions of readers in 13 years. They form a crushing majority of
“the people”, whose voices we have strived to project.
Our cross has been that government institutions have
denied us advertising, despite our popularity and regularity, because we are
perceived as an “opposition newspaper”. The opposition too has given us the
label of a pro-regime publication. Did it then surprise anybody that the leader
of the leading opposition political party, John Fru Ndi is on record to have
written to the National Communication Council that The Guardian Post
should be suspended? If he had his way, would he not have asked that it should
be shut down in violation of press freedom inalienable right?
Against such odds, The Guardian Post has in 13
years, refused to be neutral, but consistently by the side of the evidence of
truth. It doesn’t fizzle out even when it flickers like a candle in the
wilderness of darkness painted gloomy by our detractors and enemies of facts.
We sincerely thank our readers and the few advertisers
who have stood by what they consider to be right, just and sincere. They have
helped us to keep walking on, at times limping, at others wobbling and now
running at 13. It’s been like a miraculous child born with teeth. That’s why we
are at the top. Thanks to the Creator, call Him God, Allah or Jehovah. Thanks
to you.
We have had our faults. Only our Creator is without faults
but we are encouraged that we have informed a people who appreciate us.
Martin Walker of The Guardian of London in his
internationally acclaimed book, Power of the Press acknowledges that in
spite of the failings and fallibilities of newspapers, they “perform a
service of overwhelming public importance, they are in both the first and final
lines of defense of our freedoms, that even in totalitarian states, newspapers
have kept alive a flickering of criticism and resistance and that newspapers
and the brands of journalists and printers that embody them, can survive to
report the fall of the very regime that would suppress them.”
That is why even after the humbug that we have always
“got it wrong” we remain the country’s leading and only English language daily
by the UNESCO’s definition of a daily newspaper. The Guardian Post pops
13 toasts with you our readers and advertisers, for being on the right side of
the truth 13 years and counting…
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