(RSF/IFEX) – On 14 March 2003, RSF expressed concern over the recent closure of two privately-owned television stations, RTA and Canal 2, which has threatened the development of diverse and independent broadcast media in Cameroon. Although the country’s laws provide for privately-owned broadcast media, the government has ignored all requests from television broadcasters for authorisation, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 14 March 2003, RSF expressed concern over the recent closure of two privately-owned television stations, RTA and Canal 2, which has threatened the development of diverse and independent broadcast media in Cameroon.
Although the country’s laws provide for privately-owned broadcast media, the government has ignored all requests from television broadcasters for authorisation, forcing them to operate illegally (see IFEX alert of 17 April 2000). RSF urged the authorities to take the necessary steps to regulate the status of all broadcast media and, in particular, to allow RTA and Canal 2 to resume their operations.
On 19 February, provincial governors suspended RTA and Canal 2 broadcasts on grounds of illegality, at the behest of Communications Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo. The two companies were authorised to carry foreign media programmes but not to broadcast their own programmes. AEA and TV+, the companies that own the television stations, do not have permits to set up and run privately-owned broadcast companies.
The minister’s decision followed the broadcast of a number of political debates in which the government was criticised. Aside from RTA and Canal 2, there is only one other privately-owned channel in the country, which mainly broadcasts films.
The communications minister has publicly attacked the media, accusing them of “repeatedly and intentionally disregarding the profession’s universal and sacrosanct principles by interfering in an untimely manner in the private life of citizens and government bodies.” He also warned broadcast media entrepreneurs that the government would increase its efforts
to collect back taxes from them.
