By Asong Ndifor
Letter to Minister Tchiroma on Buea Press
Club
My dear
honourable Issa Tchiroma Bakary, minister of communication, spokesman of the
New Deal government, chairman of the CRTV board of directors and national 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 on 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 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 shamefully 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 “illicit 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 exact 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 Guardian
Post, 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 cannot see things from the same perception even when reporters peep 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 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 peak of the most powerful
leader 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 as
watchdog of 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 as I said earlier: flourishes in
spirit. 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
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