Stepping up the fight against corruption using local languages
The conference room of Cameroon's national anti-corruption commission was the setting this Thursday, May 16, 2024 for the signing of a partnership between CONAC and 22 community radio station heads. For the Reverend Dieudonné Massi Gams, President of CONAC, "this is the beginning of a process whose genesis goes back to June 22, 2023, when 75 community radio representatives met with the President of CONAC, in the presence of the President of the National Communication Council (CNC), to outline the project.».
After evaluation, 22 radios were selected for this first phase, at least two per region throughout the country. The aim is to step up the fight against corruption, as reiterated by the Head of State in his address to the nation on December 31, 2023. The aim of signing these various agreements is to breathe new life into the fight against corruption across the country, with the support of these community radio stations, using local languages to raise audience awareness.
Long before the signing ceremony, the various managers of these 22 community radio stations attended a capacity-building course on three themes: "Corruption and related offences" by Richard Fegue Ekani, followed by Irène Morikang Tche with "Journalism, Ethics, Professional Conduct and Integrity", and finally "Collection, by Benjamin Fouda Effa, reminding everyone that they are not agents of CONAC, nor OPJ (officers of the judicial police), even less magistrates, but simply partners in raising community awareness of the importance and necessity of fighting corruption at their own level.
Reactions
Me Amadou Talla Tamto, DG Radio Aurore FM at Bertoua
« The brief ceremony we have just witnessed with CONAC is in fact a partnership agreement for closer collaboration with CONAC to support its missions. CONAC has chosen the community radios, and we have the privilege of being among the 22 stations selected. Our aim is to be more explicit in our broadcasts in local languages, to share experiences and best practices, and to denounce corruption-related offences. Our presence here is justified by the fact that we need to be well-equipped to talk about it and get the message across to the target audience, which is our audience, and that justifies the three presentations we have attended to build our capacities so that we can speak with authority about these facts of corruption, its meanders, related offences, what the law says, what the balance sheet is to date, in order to bring people to understand that this is a matter that concerns us all, whether we live in urban or rural areas, whether we are rich or poor, there are attitudes that are endemic pockets of corruption. ».
Henri Fouman, Glory FM Ebolowa
« We feel vested with a new power here, not that of tracking down or bringing to justice citizens found guilty of acts of corruption, but rather that of officials called upon to serve through the broadcasting on our airwaves of good information on acts of corruption, through awareness-raising and education of the masses in the local language, so that everyone can become aware that the phenomenon of corruption is not just a matter for the high institutions of the republic or senior executives, but that you can be a pastor, a peasant or a schoolteacher and still be liable to acts of corruption. So we're going to continue this sentinel work so that no one is unaware of it.».
Clément Noumsi
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