Media Houses Set To Receive Sanitary Kits From CENPA

By Dilian Welleng in Yaounde

The Cameroon English Language Newspaper Publishers

Association, CENPA, conscious of the dangers of the coronavirus on media practitioners, has resorted to donating a huge consignment of anti-COVID-19 kits to press houses across the national territory.

Samples of the gift comprising hand-wash buckets, hand sanitisers, a good quantity of face masks, washing soap and disinfectants were presented during a press briefing organised Friday May 15 in Yaounde.

CENPA believes that as coronavirus continues to wreak havoc around the world, effecting thousands and leaving thousand others dead, journalists in Cameroon, just like health personnel, are the most exposed.

According to the association, “journalists are even more vulnerable, unlike health personnel, because in the line of their duties in collecting information, they get in contact with people on a daily basis whose status they do not know”. 

Speaking during Friday’s press conference, the President of CENPA, Kristian Ngah Christian, who doubles as the Publisher of The Guardian Post daily newspaper, said this donation aims to, “…accompany government in its efforts in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and ensure that journalists and their working environments are protected while they cover and report on the pandemic”.

Justifying this move, the CENPA president opined that: “As the virus continues to spread, journalists themselves are constrained in their movements, with highly-limited access to events, officials, politicians and information”.

“Meanwhile, publishing is rapidly losing advertising revenues as companies are bracing themselves for an economic downturn, threatening journalism globally,” Kristian Ngah Christian regretted, before lamenting that: “Journalists are beginning to get laid off or forced to take cuts in salaries. Because of this, many media organs and journalists are unable to procure the necessary equipment to protect personnel against coronavirus”.

“Nonetheless, journalists in Cameroon continue to fulfil their social contract and play a crucial role in keeping the public informed about the pandemic and government’s efforts to combat it. Members of the media are facing a huge amount of pressure and strain, and are often potentially exposed to infection through travel, interviews, and the locations they find themselves working in,” the CENPA president noted.

He went on to underscore that: “As the situation continues to evolve and new information emerges, updated health advice and outbreak news will be issued by the relevant authorities. 

To keep up-to-date on the latest advice and restrictions, journalists covering the outbreak must, as a matter of urgency, be provided with the necessary materials and safe working environments to protect themselves while reporting on the coronavirus pandemic”.

It was based on this, that he then said, “it is for this reason that the Cameroon English Language Newspaper Publishers Association, CENPA, is setting up this project to donate kits to media organs around the country to support them in protecting their staff and journalists as they go about reporting on the coronavirus pandemic”.

Samples of the kits, which will be distributed in the days ahead, were presented during the press briefing.

Humanitarian Spirit And Welfare Of Members

The Cameroon English Language Newspaper Publishers
Association, CENPA, is indeed worried about the welfare of media houses nationwide, reason why it decided to touch nearly, if not all media houses, in Cameroon.

Even though it is an association of English language publishers, CENPA, did not limit its philanthropic gesture to the print media organs or better still to English-speaking media houses in the country.

CENPA, characterised with the virtue of solidarity, decided to reach out to media houses in Bamenda, Buea, Douala, Kumba, Limbe, Yaounde, just to name but these, indiscriminate of their linguistic backgrounds.

It should be said that this is not the first time CENPA is rising to help government surmount certain challenges.

The association assisted government’s efforts in the back-to-school drive in the North West and South West Regions by donating school kits to pupils and students in all the 13 Divisions of the crisis-hit regions.

Still in line with helping government to resolve the crisis in the two English-speaking regions, CENPA, last year, organised a seminar on crisis reporting and peace-building.

The seminar that took place in Yaounde brought together over 100 media practitioners from the North West, South West, West, Centre and Littoral regions.