Radio France International and the British Broadcasting Corporation transmit locally on FM. Cameroon Tribune, the newspaper published by the state, suffers direct interference in its operations. Its top management is appointed by the government and placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Communication. The Social Communication law of 1990 seeks to improve transparency of media ownership. However, there are loopholes that make it easy to hide owners’ identities. Some panellists suspect that public office holders’ own media outlets. The law tries to restrict media concentrations and monopolies, but here again, it is largely ignored. At least two media concentrations are well-known; the Anecdote group owns Vision 4 TV, Satellite FM and L’Anecdote newspaper, while La Nouvelle Expression, Equinoxe TV and Radio Equinoxe belong to the same owner. Although there is a diverse media landscape in Cameroon, there is no clear policy to make the sector sustainable. Media organisations are, at best, struggling. The government has instituted a yearly cash handout to media organisations of about 150 to 250 million Central African (CFA) Franc’s (about 270,000 to 450,000 USD), which is far from enough given the hundreds of media outlets that are entitled to a share of that amount. Male voices and concerns are dominant in media content. This is a reflection of the Cameroonian society at large. Men rule public life. When women are in the news, they usually feature in domestic issues such as infant and maternal mortality, rape, adultery, prostitution, poverty and disease outbreaks. The number of female journalists in newsrooms is on the rise, particularly on TV, but despite this, female journalists are generally assigned to cover ‘beats’ such as health, entertainment, beauty, culture and society; which are not considered newsworthy. The state broadcaster makes an effort to fairly represent the voice of society. Its regional stations provide local programming and broadcasts in local languages. This is not always the case in the private media, where some newspapers tend to lean towards a specific ethnic group. Politics dominates news coverage in Cameroon. There are notable efforts to cover investigative stories, but the fear of getting ’on the wrong side’ sometimes limits those efforts. Moreover, newsrooms often lack the skills and resources to undertake investigations. Private broadcasters seem more concerned with gaining a large audience, and therefore air programmes that appeal to the wider public. Cameroon has passed several laws to regulate the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector. Despite this, the driving force here is the need to protect people from the rapidly evolving sector rather than a desire to promote ICT. The government uses its ‘advertising muscle’ to push media organisations to toe the line. When a media outlet receives advertising from the government, they can wait up to a year before payment is received. In the meantime, these outlets have to choose what stories to report on carefully in order to receive 6 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER CAMEROON 2018