Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Paul Reinhard Wandji
Published on 2024-03-14 13:37:30
According to the sports columnist, one of the problems facing the sports industry today is the power struggles involving several journalists.
Should we laugh or cry at the Cameroonian sports media world? Because the situation is even more alarming than that of our glorious athletes who have disappeared under precarious living conditions. Due to institutional failures, poor career management…
Neither one nor the other… The primary fault lies with sports journalists. Thirsty for buzz and stardom, driven by the desire to line their pockets at the expense of athletes’ careers. So blinded by money that they forget the purpose of journalism: to inform to educate and not to incite, to inform to solve a problem, not to create another.
The editorial line of many of us has become “Money before people”. As a result, articles are conditioned by the weight of envelopes, athletes languish due to a continuous power struggle at the top of federations where today’s executioner becomes tomorrow’s victim.
Because yes, that is the sad reality! The one you support to destabilize someone today may end up leading the organization tomorrow. And when, to your detriment, as you spent your time spreading misinformation for “crumbs falling from the table of the nobles,” he chooses informed and professional individuals to constitute his team… It is obvious that you will switch sides. And the pattern repeats… But don’t blame yourself; this decision comes from your gut, not from your head.
Now… We will be the first to talk about contempt. But which one exactly? Let’s not claim better treatment, we do not have the right. Because we are the cause of our fictitious, disrespected, and ignored existence.
The sports journalist who exhausts himself more in destabilization campaigns than on the tracks and in the stadiums. The media person whose collecting tools are the numbers of “those who disagree today”. Not to mention the incessant public fights for a per diem here, a piece of meat there in a banquet hall… Where is our own respect that we want to impose on others at that moment?
Let’s laugh, but let’s know how to fight the right battle. And it all starts by answering the fundamental question: who is a sports journalist in Cameroon ???
By Marie Léandre Ntsama
Read the original article(French) on Journal du Cameroun
