Jude
Abanseka
After four years of existence the Cameroon Community
Media Network CCMN is about tilting its focus from talking peace and conflict
transformation, to advocating for other issues that put together, would better foster
peace.
This was a resolution arrived at in the course of a CCMN North West
Chapter meeting at the Bamenda Presbyterian Church Centre, Wednesday November
20, 2019. Taking the case of the ongoing crisis in Cameroon, for almost four
years running, although a lot has been said about conflict reporting and the
need to deescalate the crisis, an end to the crisis is yet to come. It is against this backdrop that under the coaching
of the Chapter head, members of the CCMN unanimously agreed to tilt their
reporting towards humanitarian response, sustainable development goals and
especially issues that affect the community directly like the very poor road
infrastructure and the poor waste management system in Bamenda city.
One of the objectives of the meeting was to take stock
and to chart a way forward as far as the project on Peace and conflict
Transformation is concerned. Taking stock was done in form of a situational
analysis. Using the Anglophone crisis as case study, members broke up in three
separate groups to brainstorm on several pertinent issues. The first was to
ascertain the level and ways at which the media have been contributing towards
the de-escalation of the crisis. Members also examined what contributions state
actors, non-state actors, civil society and religious authorities have been
making towards the de-escalation of the crisis. Lastly they listed some new
challenges or opportunities for the media and the community.
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| Brainstorming in Groups |
Noting that apart from the ongoing Anglophone crisis,
another conflict plaguing the North West Region is farmer/grazier conflict, the
Project Manager stressed that the project was out to transform every kind of
conflict within its capacity. She then revealed that the Bamenda chapter has
been highly commended for exemplary peace advocacy. According to Rose Akah Obah,
members of the network must have been doing a great job which explains why new
adherents keep joining the network notwithstanding the fact that the current
project is already 80% gone. Plans are already underway for an extension and
also the implementation of new projects, she added.
Another plan as disclosed to members was that CCMN is
about expanding to have six chapters. Three new chapters are going to be formed
by separating the West from the initial North West and West Chapter; and the
Littoral from the initial South West and Littoral Chapter and then creating a
chapter for the Grand North. Added to the existing Yaoundé chapter, there will
be six chapters come December 1, 2019.
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| Rose Akah Obah |
Talking to the press at the end of the meeting, the
Project Manager Rose Akah Obah stated that CCMN members who have pledged to be
“Peace Journalists” have not only reflected whatever they have been doing in
their reporting but have equally impacted the community directly especially
through media productions they have worked on. She reiterated the need for
sustainable peace in every aspect of the community as a necessary condition for
that community to develop.
The Cameroon Community Media Network (CCMN) was formed
on July 9, 2015 as a non-profit organization with the goal of advancing the
capacities and rights of community media practitioners in Cameroon while
strengthening young journalists and community media houses to respond to the
communication needs of the local communities. This was in recognition that
community media is an ideal means of fostering freedom of expression and
information, the development of culture, the freedom to form and confront
opinions and active participation in local life. It is also against this
backdrop that different cultures and traditions lead to diversity of forms of
community media. The Cameroon Community Media Network (CCMN) is a non-profit
and non-denominational association. It is also non-discriminatory on the basis
of race, religion, gender, colour, birth, and political inclination.
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| Cross section of CCMN North West Chapter |
The North West and West Regional chapter of the CCMN
was created Tuesday June 5, 2018 at the Presbyterian Church Centre, Bamenda.
The launching of the CCMN was a culmination of a workshop grouping close to
fifty journalists from the two regions. The two regions shall on December
1, 2019 split to form two separate chapters, albeit under the same CCMN.
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