SECTOR 2

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:

3.3 (2008=n/a; 2011=2.5)

2.9 Media cover the full spectrum of economic, cultural, political, social, national and local perspectives and
conduct investigative stories.
The news media in Cameroon is dominated by political and sports coverage
because they sell more. Business, culture, human interest and other stories often
feature in the media, but in relatively small quantities.
With its regional stations, CRTV does a better job than the private press in covering
local issues. By their very nature, the content on community radio stations tends to
be hyper-local. A few newspapers are also local, targeting specific geographically
defined audiences. The Post, for example, is a national newspaper, but dedicates
more space to issues affecting Cameroon’s English-speaking population. L’Œil du
Sahel and Le Septentrion exclusively cover the northern parts of the country, while
Ouest Echo specialises in news and opinions about the Western region of the
country.
Cameroon also has an increasing number of specialised newspapers and
publications such as Le Quotidien de L’Economie and fluxecoafrique.com, which
both specialise in economic and business news. Several sports publications exist
both in print and online. Most FM stations give a lot of airtime to urban culture
and music.
By and large, investigative journalism is not well-developed. This is due, in part, to
economic constraints and the difficulty journalists face in accessing information.
Some newspapers run what they call investigative stories, but often, these are
simply in-depth features or content “planted” by an interested party. Lack of
investigative journalism skills in the industry is also partly to blame.

104

AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER CAMEROON 2014

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