A new union of journalists would soon see the light of day in the Cameroon. This is one of the resolutions taken at the second Media Conference in Buea in the South West region of the country recently.
Organized by Civil Initiatives for Development with Integrity (CiDi) headed by veteran journalist, Victor Epie-Ngome, members of the press corps, among many other things during the meeting on May 8, 2024, agreed on the creation of a ‘federal syndicate’ of journalists in the country.
The meeting mandated a panel of journalists-emeritus to pull together leaders of different press associations and organisations to seek ways of federating their actions towards upholding standards in media practice, tending to the welfare of news media practitioners and addressing burning issues, a statement issued at the end of the gathering said.
Seven veteran journalists, including the president of the Cameroon Union of Journalists (CUJ), Charly Ndi Chia, were named as members of the panel to be called Journalists-emeritus Panel (JeP). Assisted by a nine-member technical committee, the JeP was tasked to invite leaders of various press associations and organisations to brief them on the motive of the vision of the new syndicate.
Conference attendees also agreed on the creation of an election coverage taskforce of volunteer news media practitioners. According to resolutions taken at the end of the gathering, the taskforce is created to ensure proper coverage of the multiple elections expected in the country in 2025. A dyed-in-the wool professional, the CUJ president, was again mandated to convene a meeting of the taskforce.
If the electoral calendar is respected, then general elections – municipal, legislative and presidential – will be organized in the country in 2025. Like in February 2020, Cameroonians of voting age (20 years and above), who would have been registered, will be called to elect municipal councilors and members of the National Assembly and the president.
The CUJ was created in 1996 to serve as an umbrella organization for all journalists in the country, but the union has been in limbo for sometime now. Elected for a two-year mandate at the Union’s fifth Ordinary General Assembly in Yaounde on July 12, 2008, Charly Ndi Chia has remained its president since then.
With the involvement of the CUJ president in the creation of the new association in gestation, many have started asking, what happened to CUJ?.
