Govâ??t charges â??Morning Safariâ?? of promulgating verbal abuses

Cameroon government officials recently accused the CRTV morning programme “Morning Safari” of promoting hate language as some callers and guests used hate language.

The government officials hold that callers were using the programme to settle scores and also to insult government officials. It is believed that the immediate cause of such a reaction from government was the very insulting language used by one guest, Harmony Bobga, Barrister-At-Law on the programme lately.

The lawyer termed the Prime Minister, Philemon Yang, as a very primitive man. On the programme, Barrister Bobga was to talk about grievances of Anglophone Lawyers but later went on to hurled derogatory comments on the Prime Minister for failing to receive the lawyers in his office.

It should be recalled that during this incident, the moderator of the programme, Francis Ateh, picked holes with the statement. He went on to cautioned barrister Bobga that it was unacceptable for him to refer to the Prime Minister as a primitive man just because he said he did not have time to receive them. Reacting to the incident, in a slot on the programme known as “Reflections”, Veteran Journalist, Peter Essoka, said he was surprised that a senior lawyer like Bobga could afford to use such words on Philemon Yang. Also, Barrister Ntumfor Nico Halle equally sent a strongly worded message to the programme, disagreeing totally with the words his colleague used on the Prime Minister.

During the meeting that took place at the Presidency of the Republic, CameroonWeb learned, the officials resolved to write to the General Manager of CRTV, Amadou Vanmulke, urging him to take remedial measures and halt insults on the programme.

Some time on February 2008, the then Minister of Communication, Jean Pierre Biyiti Bi Essam, warned that he will ban "Morning Safari" if CRTV management does not take hard measures to douse its critical spirit.

Morning Safari is an English programme on CRTV that is believed to be critical of government and public authorities.