When Sah Terence Animbom, President of CAMASEJ Bamenda, announced the first-ever North West Media Forum (NWMF) during a press conference in Bamenda on Tuesday 19 August 2025, he described it as “a rallying cry for solidarity, innovation, and transformation.” His words cut deep into the reality of a profession that has been battered for years by poverty, neglect, and conflict.
Journalism in the North West Region of Cameroon has long been in crisis. For decades, many reporters have worked without contracts, without insurance, and often without salaries. According to a study by the Afro-European organisation Medias et Democratie, nearly 80% of journalists in the private sector operate without employment contracts, with some owed between six and twenty-four months of unpaid wages. In such conditions, survival often overshadows ethics.
This situation has worsened with the armed conflict in the Anglophone regions. The nine-year crisis has crippled the economy, closed businesses, and dried up advertising revenue. Print media have nearly disappeared, and more than sixty radio stations, online platforms, and newspapers are struggling daily just to stay on air. For young journalists, freelancing is no longer a choice but a desperate necessity.
Participants at NW media Forum launch press conference
Yet the North West Media Forum arrives with a message that change is possible. With the theme “Reviving the media: reclaiming dignity, rebuilding Journalism, renewing hope,” the gathering is a platform to reset the future of journalism and to ask hard questions about social protection, economic viability, and professional standards in a region where the journalist’s pen is constantly under threat.
The Forum from September 25 to 26 promises to look at journalism not only as a profession but as a pillar of community survival. By exploring pathways such as cooperative business models, social security schemes, and entrepreneurial journalism, it aims to give journalists the tools to thrive rather than merely survive.
For sponsors, this is an opportunity to support an event and a chance to be part of a historic moment in rebuilding an institution that society cannot do without. In times of uncertainty, journalism is not a luxury bur it is lifeblood. To invest in the Forum is to invest in stability, credibility, and hope for a society searching for its voice.
By Hilltopvoices Newsroom
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