Jules Domche, General Manager of Vox Africa has rubbished the National Communication Council, NCC. The media manager made the scathing declarations over Canal 2 International, a local TV channel for which he has worked before. He was guest on “La grande interview”.  He did not only criticise its members but says sanctions taken by the media advisory and regulatory organ are a joke.

Noting that media professionals do not respect the organ because it lacks power to enforce its sanctions the renowned journalist, cited examples to buttress his point. He mentioned the case of a French-language tabloid, Aurore Plus which simply changed its name to Aurore and continued publishing after it was sanctioned by the NCC. He also cited the case of L’Epervier which was transformed into L’Epervier Plus. “When the NCC declare sanctions on media organs and journalists, pressmen organise debates to damn it” he bemoaned.

He criticised the fact that media owners, such as Christophe Bobiokono and Guibai Gatama, are part of the council. He says the setting gives room for such members to vote in favour of sanctions against their competitors in the press sector.

He compared the independence and impartiality of the National Communication Council with that of France’s media regulator He suggested the media in France can be better regulated because once a media professional is appointed into the regulatory council, he is expected to resign from whatever job he was doing. He also said the appointed individual is not allowed to make public declarations about the boday one year after he leaves it and is not allowed to be part of a media organ with which he had worked before.

In addition to other shortcomings, Domche also castigated the NCC for acting like a court of law. “That is not regulation. Let us stop fooling or blindfolding ourselves. There is no media regulation in Cameroon. We have not even started” he declared.