WORKSHOP ON MEDIA COVERAGE OF CIVIL SOCIETY AND POLITICAL PARTIES ORGANIZED BY THE U.S. EMBASSY

Workshop on Media Coverage of Civil Society and Political Parties organized by the U.S. Embassy

 

This seminar explored some of the main issues on how to cover political parties during elections. This is an area where journalists have previously been deficient in Cameroon therefore the speaker urged journalists to take into consideration the following points when covering political parties both during and outside election periods:

Political Agenda: journalists should check if the agendas of the parties and their written plans for the country are realistic or achievable in order to educate the public accordingly so that they can make informed choices when they come to vote.

Composition of political parties (membership policies): The following should be taken into consideration; age, Anglophones or Francophones, does it reflect people from every socio-economic class, sex, and is it made up of people from particular clans.

Credibility: is the electoral system in Cameroon credible? It was said that many of our journalists express a lot of hypocrisy.

Party Financing: journalists should check the source of the finance used by the various political parties during campaigns. Discloser of individual candidate finances is also important as this helps the voters make fair judgments.

Further interesting topics were covered including; reporting principles, party platform tools and the media’s role as the watch dog, that is to say watching over the powerful few in society on behalf of the many to guard against tyranny, thus making the management and execution of power transparent. After several interesting discussions and productive workshops this extremely enriching seminar ended with a word of appreciation from the hosts and participants who all look forward to attending subsequent such events.