The Minister of Communication in a press release circulated in the 1 p.m. newspaper on July 3, 2021 on the branches of the National Post invites publishers and distributors of local and foreign newspapers to comply with the legal provisions formulated in articles 16 and 23 of the Law N ° 90/052 of December 19, 1990 relating to the freedom of social communication relating to the legal deposit of publications in its departments.
René Emmanuel Sadi reminds publishers and distributors of local and foreign newspapers to order. The Minister of Communication issued a statement in which he asks them to respect the law relating to the deposit of their publications with the authorities concerned. In the press release read in the 1 p.m. news on Saturday July 3, 2021, he said he had observed “a relaxation in the deposit with the central and decentralized services of the Ministry of Communication of newspapers produced and / or distributed in Cameroon“. Suddenly, he asks the aforementioned entities to respect the law relating to the deposit of their publications with the authorities concerned.
He quotes Article 16 of Law N ° 90/052 of December 19, 1990 relating to the freedom of social communication, which stipulates that “each publication director is required to file with the central or external services of the ministry responsible for ‘information according to the location of the head office of the press organ two signed copies at the latest two hours after the publication “and Article 23 which says that” each foreign press organ must be the subject of distributors of ‘a deposit of two copies with the ministers responsible for external relations, territorial administration, information and justice at least 24 hours before its distribution and its making available to the public ”.
The Minister of Communication therefore specifies that “in application of the legal provisions mentioned above, said deposits are made for those who are central services of the Ministry of Communication to the direction of the development of private media and advertising where a register is open for this purpose and in the departmental and regional delegations of MINCOM against the issuance of a discharge form ”. He “therefore” invites publishers and distributors of the press to comply with the legal provisions he mentions and “warns offenders who thereby expose themselves to the penalties provided for by the regulations in force“.
Some observers see in this release by Minister Sadi an action intended to fight against the “WhatsApp press”, these newspapers which are distributed in PDF format on the WhatsApp social network and which are invisible in newsstands.
