Cameroon: He who pays the piper dictates the tune? 25 years of CRTV

Activities to commemorate 25 years of TV in Cameroon were launched yesterday by the Minister of Communication. “He who pays the piper dictates the tune”. But in the case of the Cameroon Radio and Television Corporation (CRTV), there are many tunes to be dictated, because the preoccupations and audiences are varied.

These observations, which tie closely with the theme of activities commemorating the 25 years of TV in Cameroon were extensively diagnosed yesterday by the Minister of Higher Education, Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo, as he delivered the keynote address to kick start activities under the topic “Between the State ownership and the television tax-payers, to whom are we answerable”. In the presence of the Minister of Communication and that of Culture and other dons in the communication landscape in Cameroon, Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo took over two hours to clearly prove to the audience that CRTV is answerable to the State and nobody else even though there is the audience to satisfy.

Professor Fame Ndongo said the issue of accountability might be complex to many but in the case of CRTV, there is no debate on who to render account to. The government, he said, is not only there to safeguard the interest of its citizens but takes care of the concerns of everyone. Talking about TV viewers, the Minister of Higher Education said they make up just a fraction of the population. Reason why he stressed that being responsible before the State to viewers is important because not everybody is a keen TV viewer and that even those who do not pay tax still claim the right to CRTV programmes. According to Prof Fame Ndongo, the government does not only own but plays the role of meeting the obligatory basic needs of all it citizens including tax payers and non-tax payers. Professor Fame Ndongo said the debate should not be on who CRTV should be accountable to, instead, attention should be on how to meet the needs of the public while including the State with its critical demands of safeguarding the well being of the population.

The inaugural keynote address paved the way for the launching of a symposium under the theme “CRTV between economic requirements and expectations of a public television”. Speakers from various communication fields used the topic to address certain issues such as “the classical role of a public TV in a competitive context”, “the development of public TV in the world”, “Public TV and state ownership: Is independence possible?” as well as a focus on the question of “audio-visual tax: manna, income or trap”. The General Manager of CRTV Amadou Vamoulke used the meeting to make an analysis of CRTV this year with strategic analysis of possible scenarios and vision of the corporation by 2025.

Before the keynote address, the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, highlighted the importance of TV as a necessary tool for the development and modernisation of any society. The Mincom boss told media practitioners to use the media for the good of the nation particularly next year during which the population needs to know the stakes at hand. Minister Issa Tchiroma said TV can be used for better or for worse thus communicators should respect the rules and regulations of the profession.

-March 23, 2010 by Brenda Yufeh

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Source: www.cameroon-tribune.cm/article.php= (accessed on 24.03.10)