Ahead of elections: UN mobilises media bosses, content creators to safeguard information integrity.

The first was held on July 31, 2025, with media executives and heads of professional media organisations while the second, was organised on August 1, 2025, with digital content creators.

It should be noted that the Douala conclaves followed similar gatherings held in Yaounde on June 25 to 26, 2025, where key electoral stakeholders met under the theme: “Preserving Electoral Integrity and Preventing Risks for Peaceful, Inclusive, and Transparent Elections in 2025 and 2026 in Cameroon”.

Officially framed as advocacy and mobilisation sessions, the meetings led discussions on the role of information integrity during upcoming elections. 

In essence, they also served as a platform to inform stakeholders about the cooperation framework established between the UN and ELECAM. 

The collaboration, signed on May 9, 2025, aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, UNSDCF for 2022–2026 and responds to ELECAM’s request for technical assistance made in May 2024.

A central element of the cooperation is the creation of a joint “Task Force” launched in May 2025, which represents a crucial step in Cameroon’s democratic process. 

The 2025–2026 elections—presidential, regional, legislative, and municipal—are seen as a pivotal opportunity to reinforce political and institutional stability. 

As such, the UN's assistance is designed to build trust among electoral stakeholders, strengthen ELECAM’s operational capacity, and promote inclusive civic engagement and education.

The initiative is supported by several UN agencies—UNESCO, the UN Centre for Human Rights and Democracy UNCHRD, UNDP, and UN Women—working alongside other technical and institutional partners.

The meetings in Douala featured contributions from key figures including the UN Resident Coordinator in Cameroon, Stean Auguste Tshiband; Head of Programs, Fonyuy Kiven Timothy; Acting Head of Communications at UNESCO, Serge Banyimbe; and Danielle Kana of UN Women. Audio messages from UN headquarters further clarified the scope of the organisation’s electoral support. Panelists reiterated that the UN acts strictly within its mandates. 

They added that: “It does not engage in ‘megaphone diplomacy’, it does not disseminate fear or panic 'as was mistakenly done during the early COVID-19 response' and does not participate in the entire electoral process. Instead, its support is limited to capacity-building efforts for ELECAM staff and joint electoral commissions”.

Toward a coordinated media ecosystem

Contrary to perceptions of a delayed deployment, UN support is not limited to the 2025 presidential election but extends through 2027. 

In countries where the UN has provided similar assistance, stakeholders, it is said, media professionals, have reported high levels of satisfaction. 

In many cases, such collaborations have resulted in lasting media synergies that continue to thrive well beyond election periods.

Today, electoral processes, officials said, demand more than passive participation from political parties and candidates. 

They require active engagement at every stage from pre-election preparations to post-election evaluations. This, they said, is to ensure the fairness and transparency of the entire system. 

The responsibility, the continued, cannot rest solely on the electoral administration. Civil society, media actors, political parties, and international partners must all play a role.

Political parties, in particular, are urged to deploy legally authorized representatives to monitor all phases of the electoral process, just as civil society observers do. 

While the June multi-stakeholder dialogue aimed to encourage peaceful, inclusive engagement, the objective of the Douala workshops was to create a unified media ecosystem. 

The ecosystem would made up of traditional press institutions and digital media creators around a common mission, that of preserving information integrity throughout the electoral cycle.

Workshop participants explored several key areas which included developing a media synergy model for coordinated election coverage; assessing training needs to enhance accurate and responsible reporting; connecting digital content creators with traditional media through fact-checking tools and joint disinformation response strategies; promoting gender representation by empowering women journalists in election coverage; reviewing and updating the media code of conduct to incorporate principles of fairness, gender equity, and disinformation prevention.

The participants also analysed the challenges and obstacles to achieving these goals in Cameroon’s complex media and political landscape.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3525 of Wednesday August 06, 2025.