Private broadcast licenses ‘formalized’ in Cameroon

Cameroon’s Communications Ministry recently issued the nation’s first broadcast licenses. The law allowing privately owned radio and television stations was enacted 27 years ago. There seems to be no hurry.

The broadcast scene in Cameroon’s major cities Yaoundé and Douala is filled with signals. Yet only four stations – one radio (Sweet FM), two television and one cable – have legal licenses. The country’s other 46 broadcasting companies remain in legal limbo, mostly for want of money.

“I do not think it has taken long,” said Communications Minister Ebénézer Njoh Mouelle in an interview with the Cameroon Tribune. He explained the all 50 broadcasters were ‘short-listed’ and technically approved but only the four came forward. “Lack of money,” he said, stopped the rest.

But, he is flexible.

“If they write to us and say they need more time we are going to accord them more time,” he said. “We are not here to order them to close down their radio or television stations. At the moment we are still to fix a dateline.”

A private broadcasting license in Cameroon costs $210,000.

Cameroon President Paul Biya’s government has been less than flexible with media outlets during his quarter century rule. In its 2007 press freedom analysis Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said “conditions were improving,” in contrast with journalists being jailed for “poking fun” only a few years ago. In mid August a newspaper journalist was ordered to a year in jail for insulting local officials.

French and British Cameroon united as the Republic of Cameroon in 1960. Tensions remain between the French-speaking majority and the Anglophone north-west and south-west. Conflicts in Darfur and the Central African Republic continue to affect Cameroon, its eastern border now filled with refugees. Cameroon hosted last week the United Nations Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa. - Michael Hedges September 11, 2007

Keywords:media in Africa