Media in Cameroon

The major broadcasting organization is of Cameroon is state owned ‘CRTV’ which was
established in 1987 from the merger of Cameroon’s radio and television networks. It’s
officially called as Office de Radiodiff usion–Télévision Camerounaise (CRTV), which
operates under the authority of the Ministry of Information and Culture. There are
broadcasting stations at Yaoundé, Douala, Garoua, Buea, Bertoua, Bamenda, and
Bafoussam. In 2004, there were about 20 privately owned radio stations operating in the
country; however, these were not officially licensed. The state-owned Cameroon Radio
Television (CRTV) is the only officially recognized and fully licensed broadcaster in the
country. 1
The information and program list in CRTV official cite reveals the fact that most of the
programs are broadcasted in French and sometimes in English. The TV channels have
specified time schedules for only French, Only English and bilingual news broadcasts.
In case of a live broadcast (for example, President’s speech for the nation) CRTV
mostly follows the policy to broadcast in French with subtitles in English or later
translated broadcast in English.
Most of the newspapers are published in French or English, but some appear in Bulu,
Duala, and other native languages of Cameroon. The major daily is the Cameroon
Tribune, the state owned newspaper which is published in French in Yaoundé, with a
weekly English-language edition. Recently, in between 2000 and 2005, the marketplace
for the press in Cameroon saw a massive growth in the number of newspapers and
magazines, from around 50 in 2000 to around 500 in 2005 (UJC, 2005). A readership
survey of national publications found the state-owned Cameroon Tribune to have the
highest percentage of readers (20.02%). Apart from two magazines, all the top ten
publications listed above are in tabloid format. 3
Language Medium of education

As a bilingual country, Cameroon always faced challenges regarding the medium of

education. Now a day, two subsystems exist in Cameroon simultaneously: the
Anglophone system of education based on the Anglo-Saxon model (in English speaking
provinces of the country) and the Francophone system based on the French model (in
the French part of the country). Although these two models are used side by side, a
bilingual system of education is also operational at the university level where studies are
carried out in both English and French.

In the Francophone subsystem, English is a compulsory subject up to the end of

secondary education. But in case of French in the Anglophone subsystem, it is
compulsory up to the GCE Ordinary Level. This makes a possibility that the
Francophone students are generally more prepared to affront bilingual education at the
university than the Anglophone students. Moreover, the two subsystems practice two
different methods of evaluation, which is very disturbing according to most of the
educational experts of the country.
The Anglophone subsystem the student specializes early by choosing a certain number
of subjects, whether in the Francophone subsystem, all subjects are compulsory and
success is based on scoring at least the average mark. Another big difference is, in
Francophone secondary schools, Spanish and German are taught as subjects
throughout the secondary school cycle whereas in Anglophone secondary schools they
are not. So, these two systems clearly offer different opportunities for higher education
in abroad.
In four of the six state universities, English and French are used as languages of
instruction in lecture halls wherein Anglophones and Francophone’s sit side by side in
the same classroom. Thus the professor employs the official language he masters
better for his lecture. On their part, students take down notes and do tests and
assignments in the language of their choice. Most of the lectures are delivered in
French in view of the numerical advantage of Francophone professors. Early studies
carried out by Tambi (1973) and Njeck (1992) showed that at the University of Yaounde
80% of lectures are delivered in French and only 20% in English.

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_of_Cameroon
2 http://www.crtv.cm/
3 http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust/pdf/AMDI/cameroon/amdi_cam
eroon7_newspapers.pdf
4 George Echu(2004) “The Language Question in Cameroon.”(Linguistik
online 18, 1/04)