Frankly Speaking

By Franklin Sone Bayen

Listening to news on one of the Yaounde private FM stations this Tuesday, December 8, I was
both glad
and sad.

Glad
because unlike our greater-than-anything else CRTV, this private station once again (they often do) was aluding to a story first reported by a private newspaper, kind of endorsing them as a credible source. Elsewhere in the world, radio, TV and newspapers source stories from each other conveniently. Not so much in Cameroon journalism.

Sad
because though I was listening to news in English, the story being alluded to was from a French language newspaper, Mutations of this Tuesday, December 8 . That in itself was not a problem, after all, credible news is news, irrespective of who reports it. But the story my beloved FM station was reporting about Hon. Ayah Paul complaining that Parliament allotted up to 61 billion FCFA of the 2010 budget to fuel and mission allowances for government officials, was first reported by The Post, an English language newspaper, the day before - Monday, December 7.

If not only as the first to pick that angle, The Post is an English language paper and should get priority in any kind of endorsement and promotion by other media.

Or is this happening because "familiarity breeds contempt"? When we listen to press reviews on CRTV’s Cameroon Calling, Hello and others, we see more attention focussed on French language papers. Meanwhile, our Francophone colleagues do not as much as notice English language papers when they do their own reviews.

We shouldn't hate ourselves so. Others won't respect us if we don't respect our own products.