by David Tyler
Publisher
Tuesdays in our newsroom are usually a quiet time. The week’s newspapers have already gone to press and our editorial team is mostly out in the communities they serve, rather than eyeballing their computers at their desks.
Last Tuesday, however, our newsroom was packed with journalists – not from Eagle News, but from Cameroon. They were here as part of a program managed by the U.S. State Department, entitled “Sustainability and Ethics in Journalism: A Project for Cameroon.”
I was asked to talk to the group about managing a community newspaper, touching on everything from the mission of community journalism to the challenging economics of local print media in 2019. There was plenty of dialogue about the content of our newspapers, the newsroom structure, revenue sources, managing five community newspapers under one roof and everything else that goes into making our little media company successful.
But we also touched on some of the challenges they face as journalists in a quasi-democracy.
Officially, Cameroon is a democracy, with a presidential election every seven years and a parliamentary election every five. It’s hard to imagine, however, that in a truly democratic nation, a president could hold onto power for 37 years, which is the case for Cameroon’s President Paul Biya.
One of the publishers I spoke with said Cameroon is one of only a handful of African nations that had evolved to what he referred to as a “teenaged democracy.” They have many freedoms, but freedom of the press is not carved into their constitution as it is here in the United States, and the government has ways of making life difficult for the press if it so chooses.
In Cameroon, there is no required public access to government information as there is here in America. Here, with the exception of a few protected categories of information, a journalist can simply ask for the information and it should be given. If it’s not, there are legal avenues to pursue the information.
In Cameroon, the government can simply say no, and there is no legal recourse.
The government also wields financial power over journalism in Cameroon. Without a vibrant retail economy, government agencies are the largest advertisers for many publishers. Flipping through one daily newspaper, there were a dozen or so full-page ads from government agencies promoting a variety of programs. There were only two ads in the paper that came from what appeared to be private businesses.
If a newspaper prints something the government doesn’t like, it can simply pull its ads and bury the paper financially. Or worse, it can withhold payment. One visitor told me last week he has been waiting for payment from one government agency since 2015.
And last, but certainly not least, there is always a fear of arrest if you go completely afoul of the government.
“The government gives freedom with its left hand,” one visitor said, “and takes it away with its right.”
It’s easy to go through the ebbs and flows of day-to-day life in the newspaper industry and not pause to consider the enshrined rights we have as journalists in America. I’m not sure if this group from Cameroon left my office last Tuesday any wiser in the ways of community journalism, but I certainly left the meeting with a greater appreciation for our First Amendment rights, as well as the hope that these earnest people can continue to prod their “teenage democracy” toward adulthood.
David Tyler is the publisher of Eagle News. He can be reached at [email protected].
