Newspaper Vendors May Pay Authors' Rights Soon

By Leocadia Bongben

After a strike action by Messa Presse newspaper distributors that paralysed newspaper distribution Monday, October 20, in Yaounde, a series of meetings are underway to set a new authors' rights tax.

This was the out come of a meeting that held at the Ministry of Communication, October 21.
After the meeting, the President of the Civil Society for Literary and Dramatic Arts, SOCLADRA, Elisse Mballa, told The Post that various stakeholders at the meeting agreed that the newspaper is an artistic work.

She said that journalists are writers whose artistic works are carefully constructed. She added that if SOCLADRA is demanding copyright tax from newspaper vendors it is its right.
The new development as solution to the imbroglio, she said, is that while the price for books are fixed, the tax for newspapers has to be negotiated with the vendors.

She said the problem with owners of newspaper kiosks was not the FCFA 20, 000 to be paid as authors' rights per year but their refusal to recognise newspapers as artistic works. Some kiosks, she noted, sell books, do photocopies of documents and have computer commercial services and therefore have to pay.

Mm Mballa said the closure of two newspaper kiosks in Yaounde last Friday was the culmination of a long procedure. First, she explained, SOCILADRA invited the newspaper sellers for a meeting which they refused to attend. Secondly, bills were sent to them for payment which they ignored and finally a deadline was set for them to pay or face court action which they equally ignored.

"Consequently, SOCILADRA took the matter to court and got an injunction to seal the kiosks three months ago and it was only last Friday that the measures were effected," she maintained.

She refuted claims that journalists do not enjoy their rights. According to her some journalists and publishers are members of SOCILADRA. She added that the law equally gives SOCILADRA the right to protect unknown works of strangers such as tourists. 'You cannot say you agree to pay but want to know where the money goes to.

We are in a country where laws are respected and the law says you have to pay and the other says the money has to be used for the purposed for which it is meant,' she argued. Mballa cited the Permanent Mediation and Control Commission as being responsible to ensure that the money is actually distributed to artists.

A journalist is supposed to get copyright payments for articles published depending on the type of contract signed with the publisher. 'If the publisher owns the rights, then the money goes to the publisher," the SOCILADRA president explained. In case of free lance-writers, the journalist can register directly with SOCILADRA, she said. For journalist to benefit, going by her, they have to register as members and protect their works by depositing a copy of the work with FCFA 1000 for every article published.    

In a telephone interview with one of the newspaper kiosk operators, Gabriel Fotio, during the strike, he argued that newspapers are not concerned by this copyright tax, and that they were not to pay for the removal of seals.

On Friday, October 17, Sociladra agents moved round sealing Messa Presse kiosks in Yaounde. The Messa Presse kiosk owners responded by going on strike as from Saturday. On Monday morning, none of the kiosks in Yaounde was opened, thus depriving readers and media houses of revenue made from the sales of newspapers.

Following the instructions of the Minister of Culture, a meeting was held with the head of the judicial unit at the Ministry of Culture, one Ndjock.

Comments

[vernongetzler]

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