The HAT ministry of communication condemned the violence against the Frequence Plus radio station's employees17/05/2010 | 16:37:22
The incident induced by the arrest of three of the opposition's politicians in the Frequence Plus radio station's facilities is shaking the capital city's media world.
At the end of a meeting with Antananarivo city's editors in chief stemming from various press groups, the minister in charge of communication, Nathalie Rabe, was keen on rebuking the act. Three employees from the Frequence Plus radio station have been beaten up by armed soldiers in the run of an arrest of three politicians supposed to lead a radio broadcasted live debate.
The associations of journalists also began to react. The association of the private radio stations' journalists ( the local AJRP) condemned the aggression. The Frequence Plus radio station lodged a complaint.
Even the reporters working for press groups devoted to the High Authority of Transition do not dare pledging any support to the aggression against the Frequence Plus station's employees. The condemnation of such a deliberate act would have been the press world's single common ground during the latest year.
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]
