No new publications appeared until 1974, when the government created the Societé de Presse et d'Editions du Cameroun (SOPECAM), and released Cameroon Tribune.
[2] The transition period renewed interest in political issues due to Biya's democratization program "Le Renouveau" (New Deal), and new independent newspapers surged.
[4] It arrived as part of the development and modernization project of the President Paul Biya, who saw it as a mean of education for the youths, as he stated in his political manifesto Pour le libéralisme communautaire (1987).
While Paul Biya and its entourage presented television as a mean of development, many others saw it as a propaganda tool in the hand of the regime to tendentiously inform the population, praise the government, and denigrate its opponents.
[5][6][7] Beyond news and political event coverage, in the 1980s and 1990s, CRTV produced good quality TV series with the aim to entertain and educate the Cameroonian public, against a perceived moral decadence.
Daouda Mouchangou), a semi-documentary telefilm on the funeral and successor ceremonies in a bamileke chiefdom, Kabiyene ou à qui la faute?
[5] In addition to these successful telefilms, CRTV produced many other low quality TV series, which remained almost unnoticed among the public, docu-fictions with a declared didactic purpose, in collaboration with the Catholic church and NGOs, and adaptations of theatrical performances.
[11][12] Even in the new liberalized media environment, government maintains tight control over television, by the institutionalization of a broadcasting license for audiovisual exploitation.
According to the article 15 of the April 2000 decree, commercial television stations must pay 100 million francs CFA ($192,000) to get a ten-year license by the Minister of Communication.
Considering that the amount is huge when compared to the economic level of the country, the authorities created the so-called principle of “administrative tolerance”, which enabled media entrepreneurs to run their television stations before being fully licensed.
Being this a discretional principle, media operators work under threat, as it is sufficient to make a reportage that the authorities do not like to be shut down for illegal exercise of the profession.
[9] A case in point is Equinoxe television, banned for several months in 2008, after taking position against the change of the constitution promoted by President Paul Biya.
[9] In addition, many of them run abusive TV channels that broadcast global media products acquired mainly through illegal internet download.