PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Togo: Togolese media professionals opt for competence
Lomé, Togo (PANA) – The three-day national forum on the Togolese media has ended with media professionals deciding to give priority to competence.
The forum, which was held from 30 June to 2 July in Kpalimé, about 120 km north-west of Lomé, discussed problems facing the Togolese media. It was under the theme, "The challenge of competence."
It brought together 225 participants from the media, the high audiovisual and communication regulation authority (HAAC), the Ministry of Communication, as well as the civil society organizations and delegates from Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and France.
The forum recommended the establishment of a national policy on the training of journalists in synergy with the training schools, in a bid to strengthen the professional capacity of journalists and the opening of an improvement centre for journalists.
Other issues discussed were the government's 75 million FCFA assistance to the media, which the journalists described as insufficient, subsidy for press houses, security of journalists at their work places, salary of journalists, creation of a legal framework for online newspapers and granting of adverts to private press houses.
"We have reason to hope for the best for the Togolese media for the gains from the nationwide talks are a first step, a step towards successful competence," the minister of Communication, Culture, Arts and Civic training, Kouméalo Anaté, said at the closing ceremony.
Sources said that many journalists and the employers’ organization of Togo boycotted the forum.
Following the liberalization of the Togolese media landscape in 1990, there have been about 500 newspapers published, including about 40 which come out more or less daily, about 80 radio stations, a dozen TV channels, as well as about 20 online newspapers.
-0- PANA FAA/BEH/IBA/MSA/MA 3July2014
The forum, which was held from 30 June to 2 July in Kpalimé, about 120 km north-west of Lomé, discussed problems facing the Togolese media. It was under the theme, "The challenge of competence."
It brought together 225 participants from the media, the high audiovisual and communication regulation authority (HAAC), the Ministry of Communication, as well as the civil society organizations and delegates from Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and France.
The forum recommended the establishment of a national policy on the training of journalists in synergy with the training schools, in a bid to strengthen the professional capacity of journalists and the opening of an improvement centre for journalists.
Other issues discussed were the government's 75 million FCFA assistance to the media, which the journalists described as insufficient, subsidy for press houses, security of journalists at their work places, salary of journalists, creation of a legal framework for online newspapers and granting of adverts to private press houses.
"We have reason to hope for the best for the Togolese media for the gains from the nationwide talks are a first step, a step towards successful competence," the minister of Communication, Culture, Arts and Civic training, Kouméalo Anaté, said at the closing ceremony.
Sources said that many journalists and the employers’ organization of Togo boycotted the forum.
Following the liberalization of the Togolese media landscape in 1990, there have been about 500 newspapers published, including about 40 which come out more or less daily, about 80 radio stations, a dozen TV channels, as well as about 20 online newspapers.
-0- PANA FAA/BEH/IBA/MSA/MA 3July2014
