Rene Sadi salutes private press resilience, urges National Commission members to be transparent in scrutiny of 52 files for 2026
By Doh James Sonkey
The Minister of Communication and Government Spokesperson, René Emmanuel Sadi has urged members of the National Commission for the Review of Government institutional support to private press in Cameroon to be transparent in the scrutiny of application files of some 52 private media establishments (48 print media organs and 4 online media organs) for 2026.
The Minister was speaking last August 7, 2026 at the Ministry of Communication in the nation capital while chairing the 8th session of the commission.
Speaking at the occasion, Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi said the 8th session is holding ‘‘in August reflects efforts of public authorities against a difficult budgetary backdrop, to make the necessary financial resources available in good time for the implementation of this top initiative in the Ministry of Communication annual plan.’’
The Communication boss reassured media practitioners in the country of his ministry’s commitment to supporting them as much as possible in carrying out their work by exposing the richness of Cameroon culture, stability of its institutions, resilience of its economy and the development of infrastructure.
The National Commission for Institutional Support to the Private Press in Cameroon are in session today August 07, 2026 to evaluate and allocate annual state subsidies to eligible private print and online media publishing institutions. The Minister of Communication and President of the Commission, Rene Emmanuel SADI, chair of the session in his opener, saluted the press for their resilience and demonstration of responsibility and professionalism especially during the coverage of major state events of international status such as the W.T.O conference, the Apostolic Visit of the Pope, and the Visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and called for transparency in the selection process. As one of its principal missions, the Ministry of Communication has the responsibility to ensure the continuous existence and survival of a vibrant private press and online media publishing establishments. With over 51 application files for scrutiny this year, with 48 of them in the print media and 4 for online media, according to the Director of the Department of Private Media Development and Advertising and Head of Technical Secretariat of the commission, Mr. Ngankak Kameni Kisito, the commission now has the task to select qualified beneficiaries for subvention from the government for the 2026 fiscal year.
Talking to reporters, the Director of the Department of Private Media Development and Advertising at the Ministry of Communication, Ngankak Kameni Kisito who doubles as Head of Technical Secretariat of the commission explained that, ‘‘FCFA 112 million has been budgeted for this year’s subvention. One of the criteria is making sure that we have media houses that pay their taxes, that have registered their workers at the National Social Insurance Fund, who are workers with normal contracts. And they will make sure that they publish regularly, be it printed or electronically. And they will also make sure that the type of information they publish is accurate information, that they are not out for fake news and all those news that can bring unrest in the country."
For his part, the President of the Cameroon English Language Newspaper Publishers Association, CENPA, Ngah Christian casted a dark cloud over the event regretting that," we say one and the same thing year in, year out and nothing is changing. You know, it is true that government is making an effort to help the private press, but to be honest, FCFA 112 million for 52 media organs is less than 2 million per media organ. And to imagine that you cannot run a newspaper in this country for 2 million a week, so we are still on the same spot.’’
The daily Guadian Post Publisher said ‘’that is why the call has always been that this budget for the private press should be debated in Parliament and adopted so that we should know that there is a particular amount that is reserved for the press every year.’’
Commission members pose with their Chair, Minister René Emmanuel Sadi
