Yaounde-based RIS Radio and its station manager are the biggest casualty of the 43rd session of the National Communication Council (NCC) that held last Thursday, 8 August, in Yaounde.
For refusal to honour NCC’s summons, despite being notified by a bailiff in connection with airing allegedly unfounded and offensive statements likely to discredit Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic on 22 July 2024, the council decided to suspend RIS Radio for six months, as well as Sismondi Barlev Bidjocka, its station manager, for six months from practising journalism in Cameroon.
Equinoxe TV, another casualty, had its programme, Droit de Response, suspended for one month, while its presenter Gnakwa Fangwa Duval, suffered a similar fate for making ‘allegedly unfounded statements, insinuating against the honorability of Mr. Paul Atanga Nji, Minister of Territorial Administration,’ on the one hand, and broadcasting allegedly unfounded and offensive accusations likely to discredit Madeleine Tchuinte, Minister of Scientific Research and Innovation, on the other hand.
Other media outlets have also been sanctioned by the NCC. These include Canal 2 International which received a simple warning, while the newspaper La Première Heure and its publisher are suspended for one month.
The agenda of the proceedings of the session featured the examination of five regulatory cases that led to three warnings; the suspension of one media organ for six months; the suspension of a programme for one month; the suspension of two media practitioners for one month; and the suspension of a station manager and a publisher for a period ranging from one to six months.
