The public media standing in expectation

Following the designation of a new face as Communication Minister, the public media employees are expecting a brand new deal. 

The second Monja Roindefo government appointed a young woman, Nathalie Rabe, on top of the Communication department, cast aside, this time around, from those of culture, Post and Telecommunications.  

Well known for a long time in the world of advertisement as having been associated manager of the Noovo-Com agency – Com, Nathalie Rabe is going to have to dedicate herself to a rather sensitive field.  

The national radio (RNM) and television (TVM) agents are, first and foremost, expecting new appointments on top of both of those channel services. It is very likely, though not necessarily automatic. Communication Ministers actually always used to freely appoint whoever pleasing them on top of the RNM and TVM.  

As being a Leader Fanilo party member as well as a regular in the associative world for having been very active within the Young Economic Chamber, Nathalie Rabe has enough knowledge to direct the public media, in her own new way. The replacement of the main responsible persons is, however, not a compulsory stage. 

Since the governmental communication essentially works through the public medias, Nathalie Rabe’s mission is proving rather delicate, even more as the political crisis management is based on communication ground. 

The Minister will, anyhow, not miss the incentives to restore some shapes of disguised censorship on the RNM and TVM broadcasts. Some independent sources have, as an example, indicated that the phone line intervention made by former president Didier Ratsiraka on the RNM waves, to denounce the setting up of the new Monja Roindefo government, was not to the Prime minister’s close collaborators’ liking at all.  

The power transfer between Nathalie Rabe and Gilbert Raharizatovo, henceforth resettled in the department of Culture and Patrimony, has been completed within less than 24 hours after the appointment of the new government. The wind of change will have to blow fast.