In defiance of court’s ruling:

Doors of Afrique Média will remain sealed- Essoka The Yaounde court of first instance last week ordered the NCC to remove the seals it placed on the doors of the Yaounde office of the pan-African television channel with immediate effect. But the President of the NCC Peter Essoka has said the seals would not be immediately removed because the NCC will appeal the court ruling.

By Tanyi Kenneth Musa in Yaounde

Peter Essoka, President of NCC: Sanction on

 Afrique Media are maintained until... 

At a time many thought the case pitting the National Communication Council, NCC, and Afrique Média television channel that had dragged on for seven long months was finally over, there are indications the matter is far from over.                                              Though the president of the Yaounde court of first instance, Rebecca Grâce Bongueno, last week declared Afrique Media not guilty and ordered that the seals placed on the doors of the Yaounde office of the television station be removed with immediate effect, the president of the NCC Peter Essoka has said the court’s decision would not be immediately applied.

                Essoka says the NCC will appeal the court’s ruling, and this means the execution of the court judgment would be stayed.                                               

                The court had given the possibility to any bailiff who is territorially competent to remove the seals from the doors of Afrique Media, but it is unlikely the seals would be removed given the NCC’s determined stance.

                The friction between the NCC and Afrique Média started in June last year when the former sanctioned the latter for unethical practice. The programmes that caused the sanction were “Le mérite panafricain” and “Le débat panafricain” which the NCC said had gone against professional ethics.

                According to the regulatory body, some guests on the programmes in question had made unjustified accusations and said some abusive things which could tarnish the image and honour of some foreign personalities, institutions and countries. For this reason, the NCC suspended the presenters of the said programmes, Juliane Magne Tadda and Ladan Mohamed Bachir, from exercising the journalism profession in Cameroon for six months.

                However, believing that they actually committed no crime, the journalists in question defied the suspension and continued doing their job. This caused the NCC to seal the doors of the headquarters of Afrique Média in Yaounde. It also later sealed the doors of the Douala office of the Pan-African TV station.

                Meantime, several months after the closure of the offices of the TV station, the minister of Communication, MINCOM, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, ordered the NCC to remove the seals from the doors of the TV station. But the president of the NCC, Peter Essoka, replied the minister, saying he would not remove the seals because the NCC is not answerable to the MINCOM.

                Besides, the NCC boss explained that Afrique Media had continued broadcasting in defiance of the suspension. Because of this blatant violation of the NCC’s the sanction, Peter Essoka has maintained that the sanction will stand until Afrique Media complies.

                Essoka’s adamant stance has only cut short the joy that gripped the workers of the TV channel some of whom could not send their children to school and pay their house rents because they were no longer paid their monthly salaries. One of them, Sylvain M, told The Median: “I was almost running mad in this town because I had no income-generating activity after the closure of our TV station. Shortly before the closure, my wife had lost her job too; so things were very difficult for us. Were it not for some friends to whom I’m greatly indebted, I would have gone mental…”

                But the hopes of the workers of Afrique Media to resume work soon have been dashed, as it is not immediately known how long the appeal process will last.