NCC suspends newspaper for insulting Minister

The National Communication Council, NCC on May 30,2014, slammed a 6-month ban on the Publisher and two journalists of French language newspaper “La Scene”, following the publication of article in which they qualified the Ivorian Minister of communication as a whore.

The ban was as a result of a complaint filed by the Ivorian Ambassador to Cameroon,H.E. Adama Dosso before the National Communication Council.

The newspaper published the article in its No. 13 edition of May 15 shortly after the visit of the Ivorian Minister, Affoussiata Bamba Lamine in Cameroon.

The said article qualified Bamba Lamine as the whore of the Ivorian crime syndicate.It also cited other top officials of the Ivorian government as members of the crime syndicate.

In his complaint,Ivorian Ambassador said it was an affront to the cordial relationship that the two countries have shared.

He went on to say that such an article was an insult to the Ivorian government and people.

On their part, after examining the complaint in one of their sessions, the NCC summoned “La Scene” to get its on part of the story.

The publisher and two journalists, Etoundi Essam and Alain Blondel appeared before NCC on May 28.

During their defense, the Publisher argued that the word "Bordelle" which was used to termed the Minister was not a French word.

He was however reminded by the NCC that the word found its way into the French dictionary many years ago.

With the Publisher and his reporters not being able to defend themselves, NCC found them guilty of the charges and the paper and its two journalist were suspended for six months.

There have been reported cases of defamatory articles by the members of the public before the NCC.

The NCC Vice Chair, Peter Essoka presided over the session.