SECTOR 2

considered “important” such as political and business reporting, and they are
often relegated to covering “soft” beats.
Nonetheless, women’s voices are gaining increasing prominence compared to the
past. In 2012, the state-run Cameroon Tribune published a 12-page supplement
focussing entirely on women’s issues. Public and private broadcasters have
reserved programmes for women’s issues. Across the country, community radio
stations that have women as a special target group have been created. But as one
panellist put it, “It is not because there are specific media dealing with women’s
issues that there is equal reflection” of the voices of all gender in the media. In
other words, progress made over the years remains marginal at best.

Scores:
Individual scores:
1

Country does not meet indicator

2

Country meets only a few aspects of indicator

3

Country meets some aspects of indicator

4

Country meets most aspects of indicator

5

Country meets all aspects of the indicator

Average score:

3.2 (2008=n/a; 2011=1.6)

2.8 All media fairly represent the voices of society and
its minorities in its ethnic, linguistic, religious diversity.
Cameroon has many subgroups defined by ethnicity, religion, language and socioeconomic class. Conservative estimates put the number of ethnic and linguistic
entities at 250. Groups like the Pygmies and the Mbororos are often considered
the most marginalised in mainstream Cameroonian society. Because of the
country’s diversity, it is almost inconceivable that the media would represent all
voices, and fairly for that matter. However, both private and public media make
some effort to achieve a minimum representation of the wide range of voices.
The state-run Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) has ten regional radio stations
with programmes in local languages. There is no laid down quota, but each
regional station broadcasts a minimum of ten local languages regularly. Usually,
the most widely spoken local languages are given priority to reach as many people
as possible. Many community radio stations also air programmes in the most
commonly used local languages. Several TV stations in the predominantly Muslim
north of the country dedicate airtime to local languages and Arabic. However, the

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AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER CAMEROON 2014

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