The question of freedom of speech, stands as a challenge for many Journalists in Cameroon. Many journalists will not publish sensitive content that may lead to their arrest but will rather keep as archive. Madam Leanne Canion from the
Public Affairs Department Of US Embassy in Cameroon, visited trainees and expressed delight meeting the
Journalists attending the training, as She talks of Journalists being the number
one priority for the US Embassy, to Accompany them in shaping the roles to play in Democracy.
Miss Leonne Canion, Public Affairs Officer with US Embassy
Miss Canion
explains that she has spent more time with Journalists for the past 3 months
and thinks that it is important for Journalists to add more valor to Democracy. Trainees in attendance had an exchange with her and decided to find out
how the US Embassy will accompany the Cameroonian Journalists to reach their
goals, considering that the stakes of the era are high and the training session
is only timely to contribute in fixing the situation.
The training session
made Journalists edified and tooled, yet required a lot of reading. In line
with this, Miss Leonne Canion talks about the US Democracy having rooted
principles, protecting expression and thereby, allows the Press to criticize
Government or the President, as this was approved in the 10 amendments of the
US constitution. The US does not
regulate laws or have laws prohibiting freedom of speech, and according to her
Journalists in Cameroon have a major role to play, to counter laws that
prohibit some actions like freedom of expression, laws that prohibit protecting
people and respecting people’s right.
From the exchange with participants, she
mentions that it may also depend on how much independent a media organ is, like
its state of finances; revenue or Income and advice that for those who want to
report on elections, Journalists should seek the experts in the domain.
Charles Ebune, a senior journalists working with the state media talks continues to advice that Journalists should developm keep and practice the reading culture. He talks on
Investigating Corruption and says that to do a good report, the reporter ,must be corrupt, so that it is based on facts.
The 2 types of corruption he talks; Corruption in media and in public
officials. He remarks that most
Journalists in Cameroon do not get awards because of their corrupt means in
getting information, and that it is important to rather get involved with
social issues, refraining from being a diplomatic gossip, telling your interest
in a story to someone, which will help detractors derail the reporter from the matter. The sensitive nature of investigative Journalism, needs focus and the reporter in question must be able to do more of listening than talking.
Charles Ebune, Journalist with CRTV
In investigative
Journalism the reporter should do a background check of all those in the chain
of investigation, though there are a number of challenges in doing so;
Journalists are extremely poorly paid and news organs turn to gossip clubs
deviating from editorial policies, the flippant nature of investigative
Journalists, the legal framework not being in the favor of the Journalist doing
the investigative report and to have all facts correct. The reporter or
Journalists must read extensively and refrain from whistle blowing.
To be credible and have
authority over stories, Charles Ebune explains that it is important to always
put in mind, the notion of time, to contextualize, be data based and quote
sources. Much attention given to diction so as to create impact. A report
carrying a lot of anonymous sources is considered a fake
report. To combat fear, a Journalist should have in mind a purpose driven life
and legacy.
Measures for securing interview content, as
trainees gathered from the session; be professional at all times, not making
your guests your friends, the material obtained is for your employer not for
personal interest, accept to be scrutinized or be used as an example, ask
pertinent questions. All key points he outlined in answering questions of Journalists
in the session, gave an insight on some negative things done by Journalists
which makes them not credible.
Comfort Mussa, An expert in the field of Communications trains on Peace Journalism
Peace Journalism is one of the main focus of most Journalist reporting within conflict hit zones and Comfort Musa, one of the Training’s facilitator did a throwback on this to find our how much Journalists have done on content as Peace Reporters. Making the forum more interactive, participants reflected on possible stories to report on, as an
element of Peace Journalism. Journalists had to peach stories and were
encourage to do them in their different communities. Learning that with
Peace Journalism, stories peached must be unique in their angle and their
content should be different from what other Journalists may have reported on.
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