Financing the media

Visiting Ivorian minister gives lessons to Cameroon 
Affousiata Bamba told prying journalists in the presence of Cameroon’s Communications Minister, Issa Tchiroma, that her country allocates at least FCFA 1.2 billion annually as subvention to private media. Cameroon allocates barely less than FCFA 200 million annually.
By Mbeh Moses Eben in Yaounde

Affousiata Bamba

The Ivorian communications minister was speaking on Friday, at a press conference she granted alongside her Cameroonian counterpart.
    Mrs. Affousiata said her government’s subvention to the press is intended to enable authorized private media outfits to pay salaries of workers, acquire equipment and produce programs among other things.
    She said the subvention in Ivory Coast is shared out to media organs according to well defined criteria. The criteria are not politically motivated.
    She boasted that the media landscape in her country was growing steadily and getting freer by the day.
         “In 2010 Reporters Without Boundaries placed us 156th among 170 countries classified. In 2013 we were 96th,” she said, boasting that the improvement was simply thumps up, and telling of her government’s good intentions.

    It should be noted that back in Cameroon the government allocates less than 200 million CFA as subvention to the private media. In 2013, after sustained pressure from press associations and the minister of communications, the amount was raised to slightly above 200 million.
    Many say this amount is not only paltry but ridiculous for a country that prides itself as the Eldorado of press freedom in Africa.
    The Cameroon Prime Minister once questioned why the government was financing private media in the first place. He said there was no need sponsoring people who are only out to criticize and point out the government’s weaknesses.
    Observers said the PM only proved his ignorance and bad faith by making such “ludicrous comments”.
    It is believed that if the government’s subvention to private media has stagnated at a paltry 200 million or less, it is because of such “conservative and lethargic” prime ministers, who have recalcitrantly refused to heed the clarion call for a considerable increase in the subvention package.
    Booming Ivorian Economy
The Ivorian minister revealed that from a negative economic growth of -4% during the civil unrest in 2011, the Ivorian economy has peaked to 9.6% in 2013.
    In Cameroon that prides itself as an Island of peace, the economy barely struggled at 4.6% (World Bank figures) in 2013. Authorities have admitted, albeit helplessly, that at this rate the much vaunted emergence by 2035 may only become a pipe dream.
    Affousiata Bamba noted that with her country’s booming economy, the government has been able to clear its internal debts, construct a third bridge linking the Abidjan mainland to the Island, built highways, dams etc.
    She said the minimum wage in Ivory Coast has also been raised from 30.000 FCFA to 60.000 FCFA as from 9th January 2014, and prices of basic foodstuffs (flour, rice, tomato etc) have dropped drastically.
    The visit of the Ivorian Minister falls within her country’s efforts to forge new partnerships with African, Asian and European countries as the country moves towards emergence by 2025.
    She urged Cameroonian journalists to portray a good image of their country to the outside world, while at the same time respecting the ethics and deontology of their profession. She gave an open visa for Cameroonian journalists who would like to visit the Ivory Coast.
    Madam Affousiata during her visit, made a stop at the newsrooms of several media houses including CRTV, Mutations, C.T, Equinox TV, Cam News 24 etc.