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The media environment in Cameroon reflects the various tribes and languages that exist there and their historical traditions juxstaposed with the history of imperial colonialism and its impact on the development of Cameroon as a sovereign state. This conflict between a traditional oral culture of storytelling and modern media technologies coupled with high rates of illiteracy, dense poverty, and low levels of economic development makes it challenging to develop a sound media culture. “Under such conditions, the primary task of the government becomes trying to forge a nation out of a divided group of people, as well as trying to make social and economic development progress.” (Tahsoh 141) The mass media is therefore seen as a useful mechanism for the people in power to achieve nationalistic goals. French Cameroon became autonomous in 1957 within the French community and because of the leadership of prime minister Ahmadou Ahidjo the country was able to be come independent in 1960. Ahidjo served as a political leader in Cameroon for 25 years and consitently advocated for national unity as the first step toward national development.

The modern state of Cameroon was declared in 1961 with the unification of the French and British colonial zones. Now it is a unitary republic with a multiparty presidential regime. Paul Biya took office in 1982 has been known to resist political change and disliked government opposition. The legislative branch is made up of the unicamerial National Assembly. Under Biya, the National Assembly has passed several laws that ensure the rights of all citizens including journalists. One major change that was made was the removal of a requirement for prior approval for newspaper publication. “Censorship may be imposed when writings are found to endanger the public order or morality but now journalists have the right of appeal.” (Land 3) The nature of the multiparty democracy has challenged the role of the press because of demands and restrictions put in place and the concept of unfettered freedom of the press is nonexistent.

The landscape of newspapers in Cameroon includes the government controlled daily known as the Cameroon Tribune, and the privately owned Le Messager. The government-run paper prints 20,000 copies per day but Le Messager distributes 15,000 issues three days a week and lacks any external funding. (Land 4) Le Messager is more popular among the people because of its willingess to report in an aggressive way on the government. Owner and publisher, Pius Njawe was jailed for reporting that President Biya had suffered a heart attack and has been recognized by the International Press Institute for his ability to report accurate news while facing government opposition. There are 34 nondaily newspapers published in the country and the foreign press is represented by Xinhua news agency. Diane Chehab who lived in Cameroon and currently blogs about Cameroonian issues says that oppositional newspapers are popular but don't make any practical changes.

Radio and Television programming in Cameroon are under government control through Radio-diffusion et Television Camerounaise (CRTV). The broadcasts are in English and French as well as some local languages. There are more than 15 million people in Cameroon and 2.27 million radio receievers and in 1998 there were 480,000 televisions. (Land 4) In terms of access to telephones, the infrastructure in Cameroon has been low functioning for a long period of time. There are only approximately 94,000 subscribers and the majority of the 94,599 telephone lines in 1999 only existed for government purposes. Interestingly with the development of cell phones Cameroon has leap-frogged in terms of dominant telecommunications technology. “Cell phones are an important development because so few people have land lines; they are difficult to obtain and there is little control over the amount of the invoice which can become enormous.” (Diane Chebab) Around 500,000 mobile phones are in operation in Cameroon which has completely bypassed the number of landline subscribers. (Land 4)

There is little academic analysis on the role of internet in Cameroon however Chebab says that home internet is not widespread because it costs approximately $100 per month therefore most young Cameroonians are not using social media networks. In 2007 there were 90,000 personal computers, 370,000 internet users and 130,000 telephones compared to 4,536,000 mobile cellular subscribers. (STATS Page) Due to lack of technological infrastructure newspapers have struggled to adapt to an online model that users can access. This contributes to and reflects on the limited amount of internet users and access in Cameroon. Lilian Ndangam looks at this adaptation from print to online media through a case study of The Post newspaper in Cameroon which struggled to develop its Web site. “A skills inadequacy in the newsroom and a relatively weak telecommunications infrastructure in the country have prompted the newspaper’s online version to not only target a diasporic audience, but rely on the expertise and resources of this audience in the development and administration of its Website.” (Ndangam 1) Editorial decisions are often made by the owner of the newspaper and Website rather than the content providers because they are the ones who have the skills to actually produce the media on the internet.