On 28 November 2018 the first network meeting of the CCMN chapter North West/West was held. The president of the CCMN chapter NW/West and Station Manager CBS Radio Bamenda, Mrs Rosaline Obah Akah, thanked all for braving the odds to be present in the meeting despite of the socio political situation. She introduced the agenda of the meeting and welcomed all the present CCMN members
Next on the agenda was a conflict analysis. Mr Alexander Vojvoda (Civil Peace Service Seconded Personnel/Community Manager CBS Buea 95.3 MHz) asked members if CCMN members are fueling the conflict or not. They were given the opportunity to score themselves on a flip chart. Here most scored themselves very low a situation they justified that the little contribution of members in fueling the crisis comes from the fact that members still break unverified news to the listeners, members have become too careful in reporting every story that happens and can anger the population to hence causing conflict and instituting self censorship. Members here also highlighted that the crisis and thanks to peace journalism knowledge, most of them have come to play their role as peace journalist.
Conflict Analysis
Members were given three questions to work in 3 groups: one group for those working out of Bamenda, second for those in Bamenda and the third for those from the West region.
- Analyse the situation the current situation in your region-culture, social, economy and political.
- Situation for the media-challenges, problems and opportunities
- Name and discuss effects on three communities spelling out who are the actors, why they are affected and how are they affected.
The analysis made by the three groups were later summarised as follows
| # | GENERAL | MEDIA |
| 1 | Collapse of cultural values | Pressure on news sources |
| 2 | Economic melt down | News sources withering |
| 3 | Insecurity | Insecurity |
| 4 | Human rights violation: killings, looting, burnings keeps increasing | Irregular radio programming |
| 5 | Displacement of people | Media house burnt down orhave been shut down |
| 6 | unemployment | Unemployment |
| 7 | illiteracy | More exposure |
| 9 | Inhabitants in deep suffering | No income |
| 10 | Recruitment and motivation of child soldiers | New opportunities e.g. stringer jobs for international media |
| 11 | No income | Media censorship |
Before the closing of the meeting, the project assistant, Gilbert Nyongamsi was given the floor. He presented to members a plan for a common programme production project. The CCMN members worked out thematic areas to be exploited by them in producing the various productions on radio, TV, print and online blogs. The members again split up into groups of radio, TV and print incorporating online. Sample control sheet was shared for appraisal. Here, January 15 was agreed as meeting date to do follow up the various members’ productions.
