When republican channel violates republican law, the case of Vision 4

By Wilson Musa

The Yaounde-based Television channel is noted for not respecting decisions from the National Communication Council, NCC. The recent case is that of the channel’s Deputy Director, Bruno Bidjang who was suspended for one month by the media regulatory organ.

Since the sanction on July 28, 2022, Mr. Bidjang has continued appearing on Television presenting his program, Clube d’Elite.

Observers say this is the height of disrespect to the country’s institutions. Had it been that this was the first time, reasons would have been given to the Nsam-based television, but from past suspensions, Vision 4 has been appearing often.

The media regulatory body does not have a standby Police to reinforce its decisions. That is why the new President, Joe Chebonkeng recently visited the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji. The latter said he was going to dispatch orders to Governors, Senior Divisional, and Divisional Officers to reinforce decisions of the Council but when will that happen?

“A media who no longer or who do not want to apply the sanctions of the NCC will come up against the firmness of the law. From this day, I will give instructions to the governors, SDOs, and DOs to accompany the NCC in the execution of the decisions taken. We will do it without the slightest complacency. Offenders just have to behave themselves,” Atanga Nji warned.

In the meantime, two weeks after his suspension, Bruno Nidjang, and co are still on screens, defiling orders from the republican institutions they claim to protect.

The Nsam-based Television Channel claims to have people in top positions who can do and undo! It is even alleged that they have close ties with Justice Minister, Laurent Esso. But how far can a so-called republican channel violate republican laws with impunity?

In 2021, the former president of Cameroon’s National Communication Council (CNC), Peter Essoka, was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment and suspended for 3 years for “abuse of power” by the court of the First Instance in Yaounde.
The plaintiff and his collaborators were the president and general manager of the L’Anecdote group, Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga, and three of his journalists, who had dragged Mr. Essoka to Court for sanctioning them. L’Anecdote is the umbrella company under which Vision 4 functions.

Will Joe Chebonkeng be dragged to court for trying to clean the media space from bad journalism?

Reacting to their one-month suspension on July 28, 2022, for poor reporting and abuse of a Diaspora-based Activist, Remy Ngono, Bruno Bidjang said “In this document, Joseph CHEBONKENG KALABUBSE defense JP Remy Ngono, an apostle of chaos who denigrates the Head of State to the last of his collaborators without counting the members of the government and the noble Cameroonian citizens. The National Communication Council has therefore clearly revealed its intention to support JP Remy Ngono and all the pseudo activists who want to set Cameroon on fire and bloodshed. Faithful to our posture of a republican television that supports the institutions and those who embody them, we will not let this forfeiture of the Cameroonian media regulator prosper.”

Vision hides under the banner of Republican Television to carry out the worst reports in the history of broadcast journalism in Cameroon. It is this same channel that fueled the ongoing armed conflict in Anglophone Regions when they failed to report on what caused the conflict than who is behind the conflict. They even described Anglophones as rats that needed to be exterminated.

In Cameroon, meritocracy is dismissed and charlatanism is embraced. As it stands, Vision 4 knows on whom they are counting, but the people are watching!