NCC slams fresh sanctions on journalists, media organs.

The journalists and media organs were sanctioned for violating ethics of the journalism profession.

During the session, members of the Council examined some four cases of media offenses registered in recent times as well as the spread of hateful and seditious speech in Cameroonian media. 

In his keynote address, the President of NCC, Joseph Chebongkeng Kalabubsu, revealed that the sanctions meted out on media practitioners range from of one to three months suspensions. 

In the first case examined, the NCC boss revealed that Yaounde-based organ, Voice Radio, has been banned indefinitely following the broadcast of allegedly unsubstantiated and offensive comments, likely to discredit persons. 

It was aired during a programme dubbed "La République en marche", anchored by the Station Manager, Gilbert Baongla, on May 9 and 22, 2023.

“The Council, after determining the gravity of the responsibility of the offending organ for repeatedly broadcasting unsubstantiated and offensive comments, has decided to definitively ban the activities of the said broadcasting station called ‘Voice Radio’,” the NCC President stated.

Following comments likely to harm national unity and social cohesion, made by a panelist during a Vision 4 television’s Sunday debate programme dubbed "Club d'Elites", the anchor, Bruno Bidjang François, was slammed a one-month suspension by the Council.

Commenting on the media offense committed last April 16, the NCC boss declared that the anchor was sanctioned “for negligence in his oversight and failure to professionally moderate the programme, which led to the broadcast of insinuating and conflict-inducing statements”. 

Another TV anchor, Parfait Ayissi Etoa, of television channel based in the nation’s capital city, Info TV, was equally handed a one-month suspension by the media regulatory body. 

The NCC President mentioned that during a programme named "Espace Miné", presented on April 25, the presenter failed to “professionally moderate” the panelists as one of them made stigmatising comments against an ethnic group.

“The Council, after determining the responsibility of the offending organ, for negligence in its oversight and failure to professionally moderate the said programme; which led to the broadcast of stigmatising statements, has decided… to suspend for a period of one month Mr Parfait Ayissi Etoa, a journalist with the aforementioned organ,” the NCC boss announced.

Also, a warning was issued to the Station Manager of Info TV. In the last case examined by NCC members, the Council ruled that the newspaper, ‘100SURHEBDO’ is suspended for a period of one month, while the publisher, Tchoua Stanislas Desiré, gets a three-month suspension from the practice of the profession.

This sanction comes after the publication on the front page of the newspaper, in its edition number 657, of “an obscene and lurid image”, which explicitly depicted two adults copulating, considered as public indecency.