Media practioners drawn from the West and North West regions of Cameroon have rounded up a three days workshop on Peace Journalism from Wednesday 25th to Friday 27th July at Sekem Hotel, Bafoussam. Meeting under the umbrella of the Cameroon Community Media Network, an innovation of the Communication Department of the P.C.C that was created two years ago in Buea to continuously school media actors on peace journalism and elections reporting, the close to 50 journalists were schooled by Professor Steven Youngblood from Park University, U.S.A and Director of the Centre for Global Peace Journalism on crisis reporting.
"Given the crisis we are facing in the two English speaking regions of the country, we should do a lot of reports aimed at building peace and reinstating confidence between the population and the government because in the absence of peace, even we the journalist can't practice." Mbuh Stella, a reporter for Equinox TV said as lesson learnt.
Social media nowadays has gained grounds in the communication world as one of the fastest means of spreading news but whose credibility is often found wanting. For this reason attendees were drilled on social media tips such as avoiding the use of inflammatory language, hate speech, sensationalism and striving to report facts than report first. After all before social media, there was good journalism.
Gilbert Nyongamsen and Muma Jude are radio journalists from Bamenda. On challenges peace journalism practitioners go through in reporting on the current Anglophone crisis in Cameroon, to the former, "The journalist is caught between two guns; the government forces and the separatist fighters" while to the latter, "When the malpractices of politicians are uncovered, they'll want to sue the journalist"
However, in the midst of these challenges, there's a way out as proposed by Roseline Obah, Station Manager of C.B.S Radio Bamenda, Chapter President of the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists, North West and also President of the Cameroon Community Media Network, CCMN for the West and North West Regions. She says "Journalists should stay away from advocacy, from leaning unto the elitist class and actually go down to the common man especially the Internally Displaced Persons thereby giving room for all voices to be heard (mostly on the way forward)".
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The holding of peace journalism and elections reporting workshops in Cameroon has been recurrent of recent yet the current crisis are seemingly rather escalating. To Steven Youngblood, a Peace Journalism professor and main facilitator at the workshop, such can better be addressed by a security expert, sociologist or political scientist because anytime there's a conflict in a country, there are many contributive factors. "I don't particularly think Cameroonian journalists are to be blamed for these issues. I think that there are a lot of other factors. There's always room for journalism to lead discussions that can help societies to avoid conflicts, to heal and certainly journalists can play that role but I must definitely wouldn't blame journalists for the situation in Cameroon." he said.
When asked if it's OK for journalists to continue taking cover behind peace reporting, impartiality, credibility to escape from joining the rest of the citizens of their country in fighting for justice, human rights and better living standards, issues that affect all irrespective of profession, his response was "When journalists abandon their objectivity, when journalists become advocates, they're no longer journalists. They're protesters, separatists, advocates. My message will be simple. Make a decision. If you decide that you want to be a journalist, that you want to provide the public unbiased objective information or if that's not what you want to do, then quite journalism and become an advocate."
It is now hoped that after all the knowledge gained, participants will return to their media organs better fortified on peace journalism and elections reporting technics and contribute their quota to deescalate the crisis through their reports.
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