Opposition Cry Foul as CRTV ‘favors’ Biya

Director General of CRTV, Charles Ndongo

Opposition candidates to the October 7 Presidential election have castigated the state broadcaster, CRTV, for attributing the lion share of reporters to the incumbent Paul Biya.

            In a strongly worded statement signed by flag-bearers of five out of the eight opposition parties in the polls, they chastised the Director General of CRTV for unilaterally attributing five teams’ of reporters for candidate Paul Biya and associates, and only one each for the other eight candidates in the competition.

            Moreover, according to them, the reporters attached to the campaign teams of the opposition parties are mostly green horns in the profession, while the experienced reporters have all been reserved for the CPDM and its candidate.

            The candidates also argued that CRTV attributes more airtime to the CPDM candidate over prime time news and related programmes even though the latter has never been on the field since ELECAM retained their candidatures.

            According to them, this gives the impression that they (opposition candidates) are dormant even though they are very active on the field.

            They have requested an equitable redistribution of reporters to all nine candidates, since according to them; CRTV is financed by taxes from all Cameroonians.

            Going by the opposition, if by September 22 CRTV does not redress the situation, opposition parties would relieve the team of reporters put at their disposal, press on for the resignation of the Director General of the CRTV as well as seek other measures, the declaration stated.

            The declaration was signed in Douala on Tuesday, September 18 and as of now no official information has filtered from CRTV or the Ministry of Communication and the National Communication Council concerning the concerns raised.

            At the beginning of the month, the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, met with representatives of political parties to the Presidential election in the presence of CRTV’s management and allocated equitably airtime for campaign messages to each party on radio and television.

            This disagreement between CRTV and opposition candidates emanated from an internal document signed by the Director General of the corporation, Charles Ndongo and dated September 12 wherein, five teams of reporters were attributed to the CPDM candidate and associates.

            Paul Biya alone was given one team of five experienced reporters including Ashu Nyenty and Yves Marc Medjo. A second team of reporters was attached to Biya’s Campaign Manager, Jean Kuete.

            Reporters were also attached to the President of the Senate, Marcel Niat Njifendji, who is the head of the West Regional Campaign team for Paul Biya and to the President of the National Assembly, who heads Biya’s campaign in the Far North Region.

            Another team of 12 experienced reporters including Unity Palace Correspondent, Ben Meno Pufong and Political Desk Editor, Albert Njie Mbonde among others was dispatched to cover the activities of members of the Presidential majority behind candidate Paul Biya.

            In the meantime, all the eight opposition candidates have been attributed a team each of three reporters with most of them being newly recruited and not versed with issues of politics and the political language.

            In this disposition, opposition parties argue that CRTV is merely preparing a victorious stage for the ruling party’s candidate as there would be no match especially given the importance communication plays in such an exercise.