Professional wrongdoings: NCC dishes out fresh sanctions on media practitioners, organs.

The session was chaired by the President of NCC, Joseph Chebongkeng Kalabubsu.

After deliberating on five cases, the members of the council issued sanctions ranging from severe warning to one-month suspension. 

In the first case, pitting the NCC against Vision 4 TV and the journalist, Boni Menyene Philippe, over comments made on an ongoing judicial proceeding, the journalist was cautioned. 

According to the council, during the TV station’s Sunday programme dubbed 'Club d'Elites’, aired last March 3, Boni Philippe made “flagrant commentary” on an ongoing court trial, which is forbidden by law, and liable for professional misconduct.

In another case, the online media organ, Actu Cameroun and journalist, Erel Djene, was suspended for a period of one month each. 

This is after the Director General of the National Social Insurance Fund, NSIF, Noël Alain Olivier Mekulu Mvondo Akame, complained to the council that the organ published an article on April 23, with unfounded claims of embezzlements within the institution ranging in particular from the management of staff bonuses to financial and property investments. 

The council ascertained that responsibility of the organ for failing to comply with the professional requirements of investigation, cross-checking and balance.

The council further referred the decision to the National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies, ANTIC, for enforcement.

In a separate case, Director General of Telecommunications Regulatory Board, TRB, Professor Zo'o Zame Philémon, filed a complaint against the Publisher of ‘l'Independant Economie’ newspaper and its journalist Arsène Ndzana, for publication of “unfounded accusations”, blaming him for embezzling the performance bonus of some TRB staff.

For refusing to honour NCC's summons, despite having been notified by a bailiff, the council decided to slam a month suspension on the Publisher, Max Mpandjo. 

Similarly, the journalist Ndzana was given a month holdup from practising journalism in Cameroon for failing to comply with the professional requirements of cross-checking and balance information.

Meanwhile, a case pitting Rev Momha Joseph against Paysan Elite newspaper, its Publisher and two other journalists at the media organ, was simply dismissed. 

The complainant lodged a complaint at the Council following the publication of an article bearing allegedly unsubstantiated declarations likely to tarnish his reputation, discrediting him as a professional in the phytosanitary sector.

After ascertaining the wrongdoing of the organ, the council however, ask the complainant to comply with the prescribed format of the right of reply, which had been downed by the organ for noncompliance prior to publication.

This story first published in The Guardian Post issue No3131 of Tuesday June 04, 2024