Why I didn’t leave journalism for politics, by Cameroonian publisher Etahoben
You’ve been in Journalism for about four decades now. How is it in Cameroon? Media practice in Cameroon is on the downside. In fact, instead of the situation improving along with current trends the world over as compared to pre-independence days, the situation in Cameroon has been deteriorating. It is always so with sit-tight and […]
You’ve been in Journalism for about four decades now. How is it in Cameroon?
Media practice in Cameroon is on the downside. In fact, instead of the situation improving along with current trends the world over as compared to pre-independence days, the situation in Cameroon has been deteriorating. It is always so with sit-tight and dictatorial regimes. The longer they stay put, the people progressively grow to abhor them and so they seek for new ways to remain in power and most times muzzling the press is their first option. The Paul Biya regime is such an outfit. I am sorry to say that I had to advise my first child (a girl, now a woman) against joining me in the profession when she had to choose what to study in the university. She eventually went on to read Law. That is how bad I feel about my own profession here in Cameroon.
You said, at a point, one of your reporters resigned and went back to farm. What happened?
The young man was a school leaver who had been living in the village without a job and when I went to the village to commiserate some family’s deaths, I discovered him and found out he was really smart and so I decided to take him along with me to Yaounde and try to make a journalist out of him. Sometime along the line, Andrew Jennings, an investigative journalist colleague in Britain wrote to me to help out with investigating the investments of the Cameroonian CAF President Issa Hayatou. I then decided to send the young man around town to nose for hints on Hayatou. The obvious first destination was the Moslem quarters of Yaounde, since Hayatou is a Moslem. But when he got there and started asking questions about Hayatou’s wealth, he was badly rough-handled by goons. I don’t know whether they were commandeered and so the young man returned very dishevelled and frightened. He eventually told me he did not think he was cut out for journalism if that was what it involved. He did return to the village to continue with the farming he had been involved in before I took him to Yaounde .
What are the challenges facing contemporary newspaper publishers in Cameroon?
The challenges are so many. First, there are the killer taxes, which give no consideration to the civil/civic responsibilities evolving on the press because of which it has to be treated, not as completely business-oriented ventures, but mostly as civil society organisations. The press in Cameroon does not benefit from any tax exemptions, neither is it granted preferential tariffs for postage, telephones, transport etc. It does not enjoy any excise duty incentives on production material, such as newsprint, plates, ink etc. And because of this, the cover prices of newspapers in Cameroon are easily the highest in the world. Most newspapers in my country are 12-page tabloids and they cost the equivalent of about US$1. Not only that, the media is deliberately subjected to prohibitive tax assessment and harassment that have sent most newspapers to sleep. Since the liberalisation of the media law in 1990, which led to the proliferation of titles (hitting about 500 titles at one time), most of the papers have been muzzled out of the newsstands because of government harassment. Today, hardly 20 maintain their periodicity or publish at all.
What are the main sources of revenue for your newspaper and how stable are they?
Normally, the print media depends on revenue from sales and advertisements to survive. However, with the advent of the online media which is accessed mostly by the same people with the means to buy the newspapers, sales have fallen very drastically. One would have thought that advertising would save the day, but that is not the case, especially with private newspapers like my own which are seen by government as working to get them out of power. In Cameroon, government and government subsidiaries are responsible for about 90% of the advertising and so if you are not in the good books of government, you lose about 90% of the national advertising revenue. As I said during the Southern Africa regional conference of FAIR in Johannesburg late last month, unless media practitioners rethink the concept of print media financing, the print media may just be on the last throes of its existence.
It looks like government in Cameroon doesn’t care about what you publish. Why is it so?
You see, the Cameroonian government is so naïve and thinks that we are still in the age of ignorance. They wrongly believe the local media reaches very few compatriots and so they don’t care when the media brings out certain truths which could constitute scandals to bring down your run-of-the-mill governments. However, when the same story is published in the foreign media, they react very promptly, often-times with lame-duck denials and explanations of the situation. Can you imagine that at one time, the Minister of Higher Education who was a journalist and university professor, said Cameroonians in the diaspora can write what they like in the internet, it wouldn’t have an impact on the home front because most Cameroonians don’t know what the internet is all about? They seem to be realising they have been wrong all along, because the ruling party is now asking its members to take the message of their party to the web so as to inform the youths of what the party is all about.
How is the online publishing affecting your print newspapers?
As I just said above, online media is negatively affecting the print media. I take myself as an example. I used to buy about three newspapers a day before the advent of online publishing. Today, I hardly buy any because I access my favourite newspapers online and read them for free so I don’t need to buy them again. This has virtually wiped out sales revenues, and with adverts becoming rare commodities, the noose is tightening by the day.
How is your engagement in investigative journalism being received in Cameroon? What impact have you made?
Originally, investigative journalism was perceived here as some sort of spying on government and its operatives. Even the man-in-the-street whose plight investigative journalism is intended to ameliorate felt investigative journalists were over-stepping the bounds of decent media practitioning. But with time, and seeing the impact of investigative stories on governance, most Cameroonians are beginning to appreciate it. One of my flagship investigations led to the restitution of land that was originally intended for the building of an Islamic Complex in Yaounde , but which was almost seized and handed over to President Paul Biya. My exposure of the scheme led Biya to order that the land be returned to its original owners – the Moslem community. Today when I go to the quarter where the Islamic Complex financed by the government of Saudi Arabia is situated and see the splendour of that complex and the use to which it is being put (both as a centre of learning and religion), I feel very fulfilled for having contributed towards its realisation.
Why didn’t you jump from Journalism into politics? That’s what your friends have done?
In the wisdom of its diversity, nature has made it to be that people have as diverse aims and aspirations as their numbers. Politics as practised within the larger segment of the African society has been dishonoured. The impression is created by most African politicians that politics is a ‘lying game’ which practitioners are voodoo and conmen fighting over the carcasses of nations and their wealth. I hate to be identified with that kind of concept.
What’s your advice to young journalists/publishers in Africa?
As I always tell my children, honesty and hardwork are the best policies in life. Aspirant journalists and publishers must adopt a culture of honesty towards their readers and advertisers. They must also work hard (an eighteen-hour day is ideal) if they have to last in the profession. Above all, they must cultivate the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.