Journalists Are Not Forbidden from Reporting Election Trends — Dr. Ashu Nyenty Clarifies

There is no provision in Cameroon’s electoral law that forbids the publication of election trends by journalists or anyone else, clarifies media law expert and CRTV political journalist, Dr. Ashu Nyenty.

“There has been this debate whether trends are forbidden… I belong to the second school of thought which is that the law does not forbid journalists from publishing trends,” he explained during a virtual training session for CAMASEJ journalists on election reporting.

The training, held via Zoom this August 18, was part of an ongoing Camasej project designed to upskill journalists on covering elections.

The statement, coming barely two months to the 2025 presidential election, clarified a popular conception that Cameroonian law forbids journalists or any party from reporting election trends in the country.

The October 12 election comes against the backdrop of persistent claims of electoral irregularities by President Paul Biya’s CPDM party.

This year, parties such as the Social Democratic Front (SDF) have announced plans to deploy polling agents across all 30,000 polling stations to safeguard votes and monitor the process more effectively.

This could provide reporters with ample data on election trends across the polling stations.

Drawing from his years of political reporting experience, including covering elections in the United States, Nigeria, Chad, and Côte d’Ivoire, Dr. Nyenty emphasized the need for journalists to familiarize themselves with electoral laws before reporting on elections.

Citing Section 113 of the Electoral Code, he noted that results from each polling station must be proclaimed publicly.

This, he said, means journalists or people have the right to broadcast these results from polling stations. He however regretted that journalists have not been rigorous enough in exercising this right, because it requires enormous human and financial resources to effectively report trends from the over 30,000 polling stations in the country.

“The problem is that right now we have about 30,000 polling stations. If the media is well represented in all the 30,000 polling stations, upon counting the votes and proclamation in each polling station the media can have the result for the vote from each polling station,” he added.

“But the problem is that you don’t add up the figures and declare the winner. You just present the information as obtained from each polling station without adding up the figures.”

He further clarified that the law permits media presence during vote counting, which provides an opportunity for transparent reporting.

According to him, the safest approach for journalists is to publish results as proclaimed in polling stations without compiling or declaring an overall winner—the sole prerogative of the Constitutional Council.

Dr. Nyenty also reminded journalists of the election timeline.

Campaigns are set to begin on September 28, the 15th day before the election, and will end at midnight on the eve of the polling day.

He also drilled journalists on the legal issues involving campaigns, noting that journalists must not only accompany candidates in disseminating their campaign messages, but also ensure legality.

According to the law, campaign posters, manifestos, and circulars of candidates must be endorsed by the General Directorate of Elections, and should use the same colors as their ballot papers.

This means journalists would be in peril of the law if they disseminate official campaign posters and messages that are not approved by ELECAM or that contain hate speech or anti-republican messages.

Ashu Nyenty stressed that journalists must play a dual role in the electoral process—ensuring fairness, transparency, and impartiality.

“Two basic roles: source of information by covering and informing people about what is happening about each candidate and secondly a vector of communication to the different candidates. They use us to reach out to the population. We must have a sound grasp of the electoral laws (not just the electoral code).”