Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV)

Cameroon Radio Television (CRTV) is Cameroon’s state-owned public broadcasting corporation, operating three main television services, the Poste National radio service, regional radio stations, and local FM services from its headquarters at Mballa II, Yaoundé. CRTV broadcasts in Cameroon’s two official languages, French and English, and operates as a public industrial and commercial establishment under the supervision of the Ministry of Communication.

Media assets

Television: CRTV: generalist public television channel covering news, current affairs, entertainment, and cultural programming; CRTV News: news and current-affairs channel launched in January 2018; CRTV Sport: sports and thematic channel launched in June 2019

National radio: Poste National: flagship national radio service

Regional radio: CRTV Adamaoua, CRTV Centre, CRTV Est, CRTV Extrême-Nord, CRTV Littoral, CRTV Nord, CRTV Nord-Ouest, CRTV Ouest, CRTV Sud, and CRTV Sud-Ouest

Local FM services: Suelaba FM 105, Mount Cameroon FM, CRTV237 Webradio, and other FM de proximité stations

Ownership and governance

CRTV traces its institutional roots to colonial-era radio broadcasting and the later merger of state radio and television services in 1987. The corporation was created by Law No. 87/020 of 17 December 1987, with its organisation and functioning formalised by Decree No. 88/126 of 25 January 1988. CRTV is established as a public industrial and commercial establishment with legal personality and financial autonomy, responsible for radio and television production and broadcasting. The earlier merger between the Direction de la Radiodiffusion and Cameroon Television was effected through Law No. 87/019 of the same date establishing the audiovisual communication system in Cameroon.

CRTV operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Communication, headed by Minister René Emmanuel Sadi. The President of the Republic appoints CRTV’s senior leadership, including the Director General, the Deputy Director General, and the President of the Board of Administration (Président du Conseil d’Administration, PCA). The Board chairmanship is governed by presidential appointment under Decree No. 2019/234 of 8 May 2019 on the appointment of the President of CRTV’s Board of Directors.

Charles Pythagore Ndongo has served as Director General of CRTV since his appointment by Presidential Decree No. 2016/272 of 29 June 2016. He is the fourth Director General in CRTV’s history. Before his elevation to DG, Ndongo served as Central Director of National Television (Directeur Central de la Télévision Nationale) from September 2015, and earlier spent years leading the special-reporting brigade covering presidential activities domestically and abroad, a track record that earned him a public reputation as the “President’s journalist”. Ndongo succeeded Amadou Vamoulké, who later faced a long-running embezzlement case widely criticised by press-freedom organisations. Emmanuel Wongibe has served as Deputy Director General since his appointment by Presidential Decree No. 2016/273 of 29 June 2016, succeeding Francis Wete.

Under Ndongo’s leadership, CRTV has continued the digital transformation initiated under his predecessor, including the migration to Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) and the expansion of the channel portfolio through the launch of CRTV News in January 2018 and CRTV Sport in June 2019. The corporation operates dedicated production and broadcasting facilities across the ten administrative regions, supporting the regional radio network.

Source of funding and budget

CRTV is structurally dependent on public financing through its annual budget allocation from the national treasury. Cameroonian media reporting placed CRTV’s 2025 budget at nearly CFAF 31 billion following the 61st session of the Board of Directors, with subsequent reporting placing the 2026 budget at approximately CFAF 33.2 billion. The 2024 budget reflected a slight decline in real terms despite stable CFAF allocations, attributed to inflation and currency volatility.

CRTV also generates commercial revenue through its commercial agency CMCA, covering advertising, programme sales, and event-coverage contracts. These commercial activities do not appear to offset the broadcaster’s structural dependence on public financing. CRTV’s financial architecture reflects the broader pattern of Cameroon’s state-aligned media sector: public funding sustains the broadcaster’s national geographic reach across all ten regions, but operational autonomy and editorial independence are constrained by the executive’s combined power of appointment, supervisory tutelage, and budget allocation. No detailed standalone audited financial statements were identified in publicly accessible sources.

Editorial independence

No statutory provisions or institutional mechanisms were identified that safeguard CRTV’s editorial independence from state or ruling-party influence. State Media Monitor content analysis carried out in 2024 found that CRTV’s output strongly prioritised presidential activity, ministerial communications, and ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) initiatives, with limited visibility for opposition and dissenting perspectives. The 2024 SMM analysis confirmed longstanding academic findings on CRTV’s positioning as a government-aligned outlet. Press-freedom organisations and independent media monitors have repeatedly characterised CRTV as a state propaganda outlet, citing its role in amplifying government narratives during election cycles, civil unrest in the Anglophone regions, and security operations in the Far North.

The bilingual mandate of the corporation, covering Cameroon’s francophone majority and anglophone minority, has been the subject of separate criticism from Anglophone civil-society organisations, who have argued that CRTV’s English-language programming has historically been less developed than its French-language output. The broader Cameroonian media-regulatory environment is shaped by the 1990 Liberty of Social Communication Law (Law No. 90/052), the 2010 Cybersecurity Law, and the Penal Code provisions on press offences. The National Communication Council (Conseil National de la Communication, CNC) is the formal media regulator, with members appointed by the President of the Republic. The CNC has sanctioning powers over media but has not functioned as an effective check on state-broadcaster bias, and no evidence was identified that it serves as an effective safeguard for CRTV’s editorial autonomy.

AI and digital policy

CRTV operates a substantial digital footprint anchored by its corporate website at crtv.cm, with live streaming for its television and radio services, dedicated CRTV News and CRTV Sport pages, regional-station pages, mobile applications, and social-media accounts on Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and WhatsApp. The Ministry of Communication announced in January 2025 plans to establish a Cameroon Virtual News Agency, and in February 2026 government reporting confirmed that the pilot phase of the Agence Virtuelle d’Information (AVI) had been launched on 4 February 2026 to produce content on national affairs for domestic and international audiences, including those in enclaved regions. The AVI is a national-policy initiative rather than a CRTV-specific platform. No publicly available evidence of a formal CRTV policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content provenance frameworks such as C2PA was identified. At national level, Cameroon’s 1990 Liberty of Social Communication Law, the 2010 Cybersecurity Law, and the National Communication Council statute shape the regulatory environment for editorial content and broadcasting.

May 2026