Cameroon 2.13 The advertising market is large enough to maintain a diversity of media outlets. ANALYSIS: As of November 2008, the money value of adverts in Cameroon was one billion seven hundred million CFA francs (1.7 billion CFA francs) ($34.000). This is quite a lot, but a problem arises when one looks into the media organs benefiting from it. At one moment, members of government were assigned media outlets to give them adverts. In Cameroon, media organs are deprived of adverts because of the political stance of the publisher. “L’Effort Camerounais” and “Radio Veritas” do not receive adverts from the government because Cardinal Christian Tumi who heads these outlets is seen to be too critical of the government. The flimsy excuse being given is that the government does not want to be seen to be supporting the Catholic Church. Business persons do avoid those media organs which appear to be critical of the government with the excuse that they do not want to be seen to be supporting the opposition. Any media organ critical of the powers that be is considered an arm of the opposition. Advertisers believe if they were to give such media outlets adverts, they would be taxed out of business. SCORES: Individual scores: 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2 Average score: 1.8 Overall score for sector 2: 2.0 African Media Barometer - Cameroon 2008 21