Cleansing the media landscape:

NPCC issues 1st batch of press cards

-Some 30 journalists on Friday 28 July 2016 received the 1st batch of press cards produced by the NPCC, during a solemn ceremony at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel

By Rachel NtubeNgwese in Yaounde

Communication Minister, IssaTchiroma

The National Press Card Commission NPCC has launched the issuance of press cards to career journalists and para-journalists in the country. The solemn launching ceremony that took place in Yaounde on Friday 28 July 2016 was presided over by the Minister of Communication, IssaTchiromaBakari. It witnessed the presence of several government ministers and other state dignitaries apart from a crowd of journalists.

                Speaking on the occasion, IssaTchiroma thanked the president of the NPCC, TchounkeuSeverin for inviting him to preside over the ceremony and thus giving him the opportunity to once more address journalists.

                IssaTchiroma hailed members of the NPCC for making the press cards a reality in Cameroon exactly one year after they were appointed and commissioned in office.

                He urged the commission to ensure that applications were screened with rigor and impartiality so that only true professionals are issued the cards.

                It should be noted that the NPCC was reactivated on 8 July 2015 in line with the recommendations of the General Forum on Communication in December 2012. The reactivation comes in a context where the media landscape has been invaded by charlatans, quarks and pseudo-journalists (Hilton journalists).

                For his part, the president of the NPCC, TchounkeuSeverin, who doubles as publisher of La Nouvelle Expression Newspaper, said apart from serving as an identification tool for journalists, the press cards will serve for auto-regulation especially in a context where the practice of journalism has been fragilized by the precarious economic situation of the country.

                Inviting media professionals to massively apply for and procure the cards, SeverinTchuonkeu said through the very rigorous process of selecting those to be issued the cards the NPCC seeks to cleanse the media landscape of charlatans and also take an inventory of professional journalists in the country.

                He said like it obtains in other countries, the press card will give its possessors the right to certain privileges including reductions in prices of phone calls on some partner networks; 50% reduction in bus and train fares as well as 50% reduction in hotel rates. He said the NPCC is already negotiating with promoters of these sectors to ensure the applicability of these advantages.

                Tchounkeu thanked all those who helped to make the issuance of the first press cards possible. He cited notably the Press Card Commission of France that helped NPCC to obtain a 35% reduction for printing materials; Orange Cameroon that financed the printing of the first cards; Reporters Sans Frontieres and the Journalists Association of USA for their advice and support.  

                MrTchounkeu of the 957 files examined, 394 qualified for issuance of cards, 469 files were put aside for incomplete documents, while 94 were rejected outright.