Celebration of May 3rd: The Malagasy journalists in broken order03/05/2010 | 17:32:08
What the Malagasy press has been undergoing is rather strange. Journalists are searching for solidarity which happens to be increasingly hard to capitalize. The political crisis had the upper hand there too.
There has been no press professionals' general assembly for years. The branch is, besides, in expectation of the new communication code's completion. About hundred journalists from Madagascar's Young Journalists Association, and from the Elderly Journalists' Club, celebrated May 03rd altogether.
This time around, reporters addressed their favorite topics, as usual, while refraining from jaywalking. The whole branch has not been evolving much during the latest years. And the country is no more exactly in Africa's press freedom top ten. Since the crisis' beginning, three reporters have been sent behind bars
Reporters have been especially invited together with artists and Malagasy sport figures to greet the president of the High Authority of Transition. Rufin Rakotomaharo, the latest president of the Journalists´ Order, produced a speech on behalf of his colleagues, in which he called upon more press freedom, the authorization to reopen TV and radio stations closed by the ruling power and the ending of the so called press crimes[See]
The TV PLUS private media station received an official warning letter. A reporter is being wanted by the state police, and not any of the stations silenced in the aftermaths of the year 2009´s putsch have been allowed to broadcast again. Hard days for the press.[See]
A number of reporters are currently in the communication ministry´s sight in the run of its intention to restore “order” in the press. The ministry´s ethics commission is so far being acting since some weeks. Minister Harry Rahajason met some of the capital city´s reporters and declared that sanctions are likely to sanction any violation of ethics and laws.[See]
Poor first step in for the Communication Ministry´s Ethics Committee. The election of the committee´s president supposed to endorse the Journalists´ order´s leadership, had to be postponed, for some members defected[See]
The minister in charge of communication is considering the erection of an ethics committee deemed to temporarily overtake the journalists’ order’s prerogatives up to the election of a new board[See]
