National Communication Council, NCC in a statement last Friday said it had sanctioned some media professionals and houses.
The decision was the outcome of the NCC’s 38th ordinary session held in Yaoundé on June 2. The journalists and media organs were sanctioned for trampling on the ethics of the journalism profession. During the session, four cases of media offenses were examined, three hinged on hate speech, and offensive comments.
In his remarks to the press, the President of NCC, Joseph Chebongkeng Kalabubse, said the sanctions went from one to three months suspensions. In one of the cases, the NCC banned the Yaounde-based organ, Voice Radio, for broadcasting offensive comments, likely to tarnish the image of some persons. The comments were aired on “La République en marche”, a programme anchored by the Station Manager, Gilbert Baongla, on May 9 and 22, 2023. “The Council, after determining the gravity of the responsibility of the offending organ for repeatedly broadcasting unsubstantiated and offensive comments, has decided to definitively ban the activities of the said broadcasting station called ‘Voice Radio’,” the NCC President announced. Following comments by a panelist Prof Claude Abe during Vision 4’s dominican debate programme named “Club d’Elites”, judged to be hateful by the NCC, the anchor, Bruno Bidjang François, was slammed a one-month suspension by the Council. He was sanctioned “for negligence in his oversight and failure to professionally moderate the programme, which led to the broadcast of insinuating and conflict-inducing statements”, the NCC boss said. Another TV anchor, Parfait Ayissi Etoa of Info TV, a Yaounde-based TV, was also suspended for a month by media regulator. The NCC President said the presenter of “Espace Miné”, failed to “professionally moderate” his panelists as they spewed stigmatising comments against an ethnic group. “The Council, after determining the responsibility of the offending organ, for negligence in its oversight and failure to professionally moderate the said programme; which led to the broadcast of stigmatising statements, has decided… to suspend for a period of one month Mr. Parfait Ayissi Etoa, a journalist with the aforementioned organ, ” the NCC boss stated. Also, because of the same programme the station manager of Info TV was warned. In the final case, the Council suspended, ‘100SURHEBDO’ for a period of one month for publishing “an obscene and lurid image” in its edition number 657, of two adults copulating. While the publisher, Tchoua Stanislas Desiré, was slammed a three-month suspension.
Jude VIBAN
