Cameroon is one of 38 African countries that see homosexuality as an atrocity.
By Boris Esono Nwenfor
The National Communication Council, NCC, Cameroon’s media regulator has lifted a ban on French TV channel Canal+ Elles, about a month after it was suspended due to what the Cameroon regulator noted as the promotion of “homosexuality.”
The National Communication Council said the channel – a subsidiary of the French media group Canal + International – was allowed to resume broadcasting, after halting the programmes highlighted. The media regulator added that it also followed the outlet’s commitment “to implement a series of measures aimed, for the future, at avoiding such abuses on all channels of the Canal+ International bouquet.”
The NCC’s President, Joseph Chebonkeng Kalabubsu, suspended the channel in a communique signed September 22 stating: “The NCC asks Canal+ to suspend without delay and until further notice its Canal+ Elles channel in Cameroon,” the communique read.
The NCC issued a warning to Canal+ on June 12, calling on the channel to cease the broadcast of programs with homosexual scenes, but the media organ reportedly failed to respect it.
“The NCC has discovered the recurrent broadcast of certain channels of the Canal+ International group programs which broadcast programs with obscene practices with homosexual tendencies, which goes against our values and law,” the communique read.
“Given the foregoing and to put an end to the above-denounced programs, which promote practices contrary to our laws, as well as to our deaths and customs, the CNC asks Canal+ to suspend without delay and until further notice its Canal+ Elles channel in Cameroon.”
Cameroon is one of 38 African countries that see homosexuality as an atrocity. The government has made it clear on several occasions that it does not welcome homosexuality, and anything related to it.
The Cameroon Government has intensified its fight against homosexuality in the recent past. On June 20 this year, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, prohibited a conference debate on homosexuality that was scheduled to be held in Yaounde. The conference was being championed by the French Ambassador for the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender, Jean-Marc Berthon.
