Cameroon Association of Newspapers Publishers,questiones silence by communication minister over government subvention s

The Cameroon Association of Newspapers Publishers, NEPAC, has questioned the long silence by communication minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary over the 2016 government subvention to private Press. The Association has cast doubts on the possibility of a meeting grouping the national commission for the review of applications, giving that the year has just three months left.

In a release signed by the president of the Newspaper Publishers Association of Cameroon Chief Zachee Nzohngadembou last Sunday October 9, 2016, the publishers are not only asking the government to provide private media subvention for 2016 but they are also calling on the government to distribute something substantial. 

The release partly read, “The Newspaper Publishers Association of Cameroon urges government to raise and pay the 2016 sate subvention to the private Press.” They conclude that, “We think the solution to pathways to this support gap can only come when the government rightfully thinks of raising financial allocation to private media enterprise like this year.” In 2011 the government reduced 25million form the normal FCFA 150million meager sum that is usually distributed to media.

The litany of Private Press in Cameroon had to share FCFA 135 million. The Guardian Post newspaper in its Tuesday 11 October 2016 edition reveals that the government in 2014 shared the sum of FCFA 243 Million amongst 67 organs of the private communication sector.