October poll: NCC drills media managers on responsible coverage.

The training was done in the presence of NCC President, Joseph Chebongkeng Kalabubse.

Dozens of media owners, editors, station managers, and senior journalists from across the country, formed the cast of participants. Speaking at the seminar, the NCC boss challenged the media to rise to the billing of the moment.

Chebongkeng reminded participants that: “Your duty is to ensure that citizens receive fair and balanced information, free from disinformation; hate speech and incitement to division”. 

He urged them to be “custodians of the truth and promoters of dialogue”. He outlined a three-phase strategy the Council has adopted to manage media conduct before, during, and after the election.

Before the polls

Chebongkeng said NCC has intensified efforts to establish “a framework of trust and preventive regulation”.  

This phase, he said, includes: rules on separating factual reporting from commentary or political propaganda; monitoring of print, broadcast, and online platforms to detect and deter the spread of hate speech, fake news, or incitement to violence.

During the polls

Once the campaign officially kicks off, the Council, Chebongkeng further explained, plans to deploy its monitoring systems round the clock. 

He disclosed that, a dedicated complaints unit will handle petitions from political parties, candidates, observers, and citizens in real time.

“Every report of a professional breach will be treated with diligence,” he assured, adding that sanctions would be proportionate to the severity of the offence. 

The interventions, he clarified, “are not acts of censorship, but corrective actions aimed at preserving the integrity of the electoral process”.

After the polls

A public assessment report on the media’s performance, he said, will be released highlighting good practices, flag lapses, and recommend practical improvements for future elections.

Political programmes suspended

The NCC President said to enhance oversight, all political programmes on radio and TV will be suspended, once campaigns go underway. 

He insisted that any political programme not part of the official campaign framework will be halted, to ensure fairness and traceability of political content. 

He called on media houses to inform the NCC about programs that will be aired during the electoral period. 

The Council, he said, has invested in portable, high-tech kits for real-time tracking of broadcasts and online content nationwide.

"We have these kits everywhere and we have told the councils to work towards that. We are monitoring, as at now, we know all that which is going on in Douala," he said. 

He also said, a bilingual handbook for journalists will be distributed in the coming days. The publication, he said, contains guidelines on ethics, legal obligations, and best practices.

“These tools will help us support the media to operate professionally while protecting the public from harmful content,” he went on 

One of the participants, Anne Abila Leke, English Desk Editor-in-Chief of Douala-based Equinoxe TV, said the session with the NCC boss is salutary. 

"The pen can sometimes be stronger than the gun. If we don’t make use of it judiciously, it could degenerate into a situation that could have been easily avoided,” Anne Abila said.

She further declared that the “…engagement was necessary for us to reflect on the weight of our responsibility”.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3548 of Friday August 28, 2025