RUTANA January 17th (ABP) – The Ministry of Communication, Information Technology and Media, in collaboration with the National Media Council (CNC), have organized since Wednesday, in the capital of Rutana province (south-east of Burundi), a preparatory retreat for the States General of Communication and the Media (EGCM), for media professionals and journalists, a check on the site by ABP has revealed.
In his speech framing the retreat, the assistant to the Minister in charge of Communication and the Media, Mr. Thierry Kitamoya, specified that the Estates General are normally held once every ten years and that the last meetings have taken place in 2011 in Gitega (center). For him, during these ten years that have just passed, many events have happened in the media sector and the repertoire of Burundian media has grown so much.
Mr. Kitamoya pointed out that since the 2011 meeting, several media have emerged, both in the written and audiovisual media, and even more numerous online media, bringing with them new things but also causing fewer professional practices.
The assistant of the minister having the media in his attributions indicated that the axis media will be approached in these bases of Rutana because the guests are the persons in charge of the media and the journalists.
Very soon, he continued, it will be the turn of the political communication axis where the guests will mainly be spokespersons and communication officers within organizations or institutions as well as communication officers within political formations. He added that specialists in the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) will not be relegated to the background because this retreat being prepared will give them the opportunity to look back on the sector and propose a better future for this area.
Mr. Kitamoya then asked the participants to help in the elaboration of a good information ecology and to have the courage to be self-critical. He also invited them to help identify strategies likely to help the media reconnect with their main mission: to be at the service of universal and non-categorical values, especially since those in charge of the media had elsewhere committed in 2014 with the implementation, by themselves, of a new code of ethics and professional conduct.
He, at the same time, expressed his thanks to all the partners supporting the Ministry in charge of Communication in strengthening the legal framework governing the media sector and urged them to also help feed the Media Support Fund. in order to decouple the collection capacity of the Burundian media. He said he was confident that this would make it possible to deal with matters of public interest.
The participants will exchange on the recommendations, the history of the reform of the law governing the media and the professional misconduct committed during the great moments of the past decade, it is reported.