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‘Gombo’: Bribery and the corruption of journalism ethics in Cameroon

Recent midcareer training for journalists in Cameroon has focused on corruption within the media. Increasingly under scrutiny, is the practice of gombo – a metaphor for various forms of kickbacks, freebies, and rewards solicited by journalists and provided by various news actors to journalists. Drawing on ethnographic data, this paper outlines the varied dimensions of gombo pointing out the nuances and contradictions of the practice and how journalists negotiate its many complexities. This paper portrays gombo as a practice resulting from journalists’ attempt to combine individual and collective notions of personhood with responsibilities to society and the journalism profession, in an environment of economic hardship and rampant corruption. I argue that gombo is as much a manifestation of these tensions as it is an illustration of the challenge of media self-regulation particularly in the absence of mechanisms for enforcing standards and accountability.

Keywords: accountability, bribery, Cameroon, corruption, gombo, journalism ethics, survival journalism