Programs on the channel have been blocked in Cameroon as viewers confirm that the cable network has succumbed to NCC’s demands.
“Program blocked, the channel does not have the broadcast rights for this program and so asked us to conceal it. Find the next program at the end of the concealment. We apologize for the inconvenience caused…”. Loosely translated from French, this is the message that viewers now see when they tune to Canal + Elles. Though it gives the impression that just a program has been blocked, viewers attest that the channel stays thus all day and night. The suspension was ordered by the National Communication Council following observations that the channel broadcast obscene scenes in movies, thereby promoting homosexuality. This goes directly against the rules and regulations guiding communication in Cameroon.
This suspension comes a few months after NCC issued a warning to the management of Canal+, cautioning them to review the programs of this channel for the viewing discretion of the Cameroonian youth, warnings that seem to have left the management indifferent. Part of the communiqué read “taking into consideration all the warnings with the aim of putting an end to the programs denounced, which promotes practices contrary to our laws, as well as our morals and customs, the National Communication Council has, by separate correspondence today, asked the cable television operator CANAL PLUS INTERNATIONAL to suspend without delay and until further notice its bouquets received in Cameroon the broadcast of the channel called Canal + Elles”
These sanctions come at a time when the Cameroon government has intensified fights against same sex related activities in the country. Earlier this year, the Minister of Territorial Administration stopped a conference-debate about homosexuality that was scheduled to take place in the nation’s capital Yaounde. The conference was to be chaired by the French Ambassador for the rights of lesbians, gay, bisexual, and transgender, Jean-Marc Berthon.
Cameroon is one of the African countries where homosexuality is not welcomed. The penal code clearly stipulates that anyone found guilty of same sex related activities is liable to a five-year imprisonment term and a fine ranging from the sum of 20,000 to 200,000 FCFA.
Brenda NDONG
