Le pouvoir du journaliste - The Power of Journalism

Selon Hervé Bourges « l’information est le fondement de la société des savoirs ». De ce fait, les médias détiennent un immense pouvoir et une grande responsabilité. Ils peuvent former mais aussi déformer, construire mais aussi détruire, unir mais aussi désunir. Partout dans le monde, le rôle des médias est déterminant pour l’émancipation politique, économique, sociale et culturelle des sociétés. Lors de la tenue d’élections, les médias restent le moyen par excellence pour véhiculer les opinions des différents acteurs politiques aux populations. Les processus électoraux au Cameroun connaissent des problèmes, depuis les inscriptions sur les listes électorales jusqu'à la proclamation des résultats. Ajouté à cela, la couverture disproportionnée du processus électoral par les médias tant publics que privés, le parti au pouvoir contrôlant l’essentiel de l’espace médiatique national. Par exemple, lors de l’élection présidentielle du 9 octobre dernier, la plupart des medias ont fait la part belle au candidat sortant. Exemple, le journal télévisé de 20h30 sur la CRTV, la veille de l’élection, a diffusé 42 éléments de campagne du RDPC et seulement 14 pour les 22 autres partis. La communication des médias sur le processus électoral reste donc un véritable problème. C’est pour cette raison qu’Un Monde Avenir, à travers le projet ACTEE (Action Citoyenne pour la Transparence et l’Equité Electorale au Cameroun) a organisé une session de formation au journalisme citoyen les 10 et 11 janvier dernier à Douala. Cette formation fait partie d’une série qui se dérouleront dans les quatre régions cibles du projet (Littoral, Sud, Ouest, Sud-ouest) et regrouperont les journalistes venant des 10 régions. L’objectif étant de mobiliser les médias pour plus de transparence, de professionnalisme et d’objectivité dans la couverture médiatique du processus électoral. Au cours de cette formation, les participants ont eu l’opportunité d’échanger avec des intervenants engagés et versés sur le sujet. Par exemple, Jean Baptiste SIPA, Directeur de publication du quotidien « Le Messager »  et également responsable d’une organisation de la société civile (Article 55), a échangé avec les participants sur la « liberté d’expression et la responsabilité citoyenne ». Par ailleurs dans sa communication, Philippe NANGA, Coordinateur d’Un Monde Avenir, a défini le journalisme citoyen comme « l’action de jouer un rôle actif dans le processus de collecte, d’écriture, d’analyse et de transmission de l’actualité et de l’information ». L’objectif de cette action est de produire une information sure, indépendante, précise et pertinente que nécessite la démocratie. Le débat était animé/The debate was intense Au final, la réflexion la plus importante de cette session de formation était celle de l’utilité de l’information. Le journaliste doit manier l’information de façon à former, éduquer et sensibiliser les populations. Dans le contexte électoral actuel, il s’agit de faire comprendre à la population l’importance d’exercer son droit de vote.

According to Hervé Bourges, “Information is the fundament of the society of knowledge”. Thus, the media has a great power and responsibility. With the publication of information journalists are able to create but also to distort, to construct but also to destroy, to unite but also to separate. All around the world, the impact of the media is crucial for political, economic, social and cultural development of societies. During elections, the media remains the most important means to relay the opinions of different political leaders to the people. In Cameroon nowadays, the electoral process is marked by several difficulties, from registration on the electoral roll to the publishing of final results. Furthermore, the control of the leading party the causes an uneven coverage of the election process by the public and private media. For example, during the last presidential election in October last year, most of the media promoted the candidate in power. On the eve of the Election Day, the CRTV (Cameroon Radio and Television) broadcasted 42 CPDM (Cameroon’s people democratic movement, the President’s party) campaign elements and only 14 for the 22 other parties. Jean Baptiste Sipa during his presentation/ Jean Baptiste Sipa pendant sa présentation The coverage of the electoral process in Cameroon is still a very big problem. This is why Un Monde Avenir, as part of the project ACTEE (Citizen Action for Electoral Transparency and Equity in Cameroon), organized a training session for citizen journalism on January 10 and 11, 2013 in Douala. This session is part of a series of trainings that will take place in the four targeted regions of the project (Littoral, South, West, and South-west) and will gather journalists from all ten regions of the country. The objective of the training is to mobilize the media for more transparency, professionalism and objectivity while covering the election process. During the training, participants had the opportunity to exchange with committed and experienced facilitators. For example, Jean Baptiste SIPA, Chief Editor of “Le Messager” and also a leader of a civil society organization (Article 55), exchanged with the participants on “Liberty of expression and citizen responsibility of the press”. Besides, during his presentation Philippe NANGA, Coordinator of Un Monde Avenir, defined citizen journalism as “the act of playing an active role in the process of collecting, writing, analyzing and transmitting news and information.” The aim of this action is to produce secure, independent, precise and pertinent information that supports the democratic process. Finally, the most important reflection of this training session was on the utility of information. The journalist must handle information so as to form, educate and sensitize the population. Having the coming elections in mind, the media should explain the importance to claim one’s right to vote.

„Je m’engage!“ – Project Update

Since the first presentation of our project a few weeks ago we continously worked on bringing our idea to life and advanced step by step in its planning and elaboration - which is why we want to give you the latest update:

We finished our visits at the Women-Organizations in and around the city of Douala; we had some really interesting discussions and learned a lot about the living conditions and problems that women are facing every day. No matter with whom we spoke, our first impression that the worlwide discrimination of women is a serious problem as well in the cameroonian society has been approved – but we also learned that there are many women who stand up against this and fight for equal rights. Besides this rather personal and individual perception, the impact of discrimination is strongly approved when looking at the percentage of women in official institutions: Out of 62 members of the government only nine are women, of all the traditional leaders („chef du village“), which have a strong moral and spiritual influence especially on the country side, only one is a woman. Reaching top-decision-making positions in the private and public sector is almost impossible. Many women we spoke with also decribed the difficulties they have in gaining independence from their families and the the strong male hierachie which contiunes to debar women from making their own decisions. Being deprived of real political participation and social and financial autonomy, for many women mariage seems to be the best option – which obviously is not a strategy that offers a perspective to get away from male dominance.

These impressions in mind, we felt even more motivated to advance in the elaboration of our project, supported and encouraged by the women we talked to. In the last few weeks, our main occupation was to find the financial means needed to implement our idea. This is not an easy task, everyone who did fundraising once knows what we are talking about – writing lots of emails and letters presenting the goals and impact of the project.. all this is an important but not always easy thing to do. But we stay positive and will continue to search for sponsors!

We visited "Les dames Sauveters" in Njombé, a village close to Douala. The organisation exists since 1991and has around 80 members.

After a really intresting afternoon with the organisation AME "Association des mères et enfants" some of their members showed us their neighbourhood.

« Je vote, donc j’existe !!! » Campaign to mobilize citizens to claim their right to vote

Projet: Education au Droit Electoral et Accompagnement des Citoyens dans les Processus Electoraux au Cameroun (EDE/ACPE).

Project: Education for the Right to vote and the support of citizens in the electoral process in Cameroon.

Although Cameroon’s party system experienced quite a flourish in 1990 when the multi-party system was reinstalled and many new parties were founded, the political elite surrounding President Paul Biya remained lethargic. While there actually is a wide spectrum of political parties, most of them are only active regionally, suffer from unstable membership and lack financial and organizational resources. The governing RDPC (Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais), which arose from the single political party that ruled the country for 30 years, is still the one of the few parties having sufficient financial resources and the power to mobilize their electors. Its predominance is undermining the pluralism and inhibits an actual change in the party system. Being governed by the same President now for 30 years leaves many citizens indifferent towards politics and unwilling to participate in the political process. The necessity to empower the civil society to legitimate political leadership is one of the big challenges for NGOs like 1MA.

In January 2011 Un Monde Avenir started the project EDE/ACPE to actively promote and support citizens to participate in the electoral process of the following 12^th presidential elections in October 2011. While official statistics present the voting participation at a level of 65%, the independent election observers claim it to be only at 40%.

But the EDE/ACPE project wasn’t finished with the presidential election as 1MA continued to promote the participations of citizens and their right to vote on a national and local level since then. To motivate more people to cast their ballot, the initiative is focused on three main goals: The formation of the election observers, accompanying the citizens at the electoral process and the scrutiny at the election day. In the last months 1MA organized meetings in the ten regions of Cameroon and educated all together 700 Volunteers to observe the electoral process and accompany the population to the inscription process of the following local and parliamentary elections that started yesterday (02/10/2012). But, facing financial shortcomings as the UNDEF (The United Nations Democracy Fund) is only supporting the project until the end of 2012, there will be no remaining capacities to actually execute the scrutiny of the 2013 elections. Hence, it is even more important to actively support the inscription process and mobilize as many electors as possible until the end of the year.

For more information on Cameroon’s party system, its changes and functioning, feel invited to look for the reports on this topic published by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung named „Parteien und Parteiensysteme in Afrika” (available in german via www).

Chief of Project during inscription

Citizens waiting for inscription

„MasterPeace” Project-Reunion 21/09/2012 – Promote peace locally!

Facing the multiple conflicts all around the world, celebrating the international day of peace seems to be an idealistic, perhaps even naïve project. How can we seriously celebrate peace? In Douala, Cameroon a meeting of various youth organizations lead by Un Monde Avenir gave realistic answers: Changing the global context in which wars, exploitation and the challenge of terrorism are omnipresent, peace has to start at the local level. For the participants promoting peace starts in their communities, families, schools and between the people who are around them. Having the experience to live in an environment that is affected by different problems such as economic inequality, corruption, the young participants agreed on the importance to find solutions by actively criticizing and discussing problems in their environment. It is not possible to be at peace if the people around you are not at peace. After an interesting debate about the question where peace starts and what could be your contribution to it, a young artist (Donzy-Donz'Art) expressed his interpretation of peace in a contemporary dance. His presentation included the participants’ contribution as he started to create a painting and invited everyone to join his art. The day found an interactive ending with the reading of five pre-selected poems composed by young students. All in all, the meeting gave new creative impulses how to promote peace locally.