Meeting to form Press Association at 1.30 pm Saturday at Lungos.
The Paris-based organisation “Reporters Without Borders”, whose Africa Bureau representative, Cléa Khan Sriber has just visited Seychelles, believes our islands are facing many challenges, notably the polarisation of the press.
At a press conference Tuesday, Ms Sriber told reporters that this polarisation, splitting the profession into pro-government and opposition journalists, is affecting their independence.
“Nobody is independent and free to report as one is answerable to a political affiliation or another.”
Reporters Without Borders discourages support by the international community for governments that suppress rather than protect freedom of information.
Ms Sriber who has met with Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Paul Adam, the Media Commission and representatives of most media, said there is considerable room for improvement.
Seychelles was ranked 103 out of 187 countries in the organiation’s index on press freedom.This, the Government felt was unfair, since no journalists have been jailed or even prosecuted for libel.
Ms Sriber said, access to information is still a constraint. Not all media have equal access to information from Government departments.
She added that the Public Order Act (POA) impinges on civil liberties and subsequently on press freedom, since it allows seizure of press material. She said however that Minister Adam has assured her, this is being challenged in the Constitutional Court and could be reviewed.
Ms Sriber said a representative of the Press Association needs to sit on the board of the Media Commission to make it more representative. She was told that such an association does not exist.
“The People” has been informed that a meeting to set up such an association will be held at Lungos offices at 1.30 pm Saturday. This newspaper is giving the association its full support.