The minister of Mass Media, João Melo, highlighted on Tuesday in Luanda the progress in freedom of press Angola has achieved since the year 2017, expecting improvements in the days to come.

The official made the statement while speaking to ANGOP on the improvements achieved by Angola after it climbed 12 places in the ranking of the 2019 world Press Freedom Index, released by the Reporters without Borders organization.

Angola moved from its previous 121 position to 109.

Since President João Lourenço took office in 2017, Angola improved a total of 12 places, which according to the minister is the highest climb reported by the Reporters without Borders.

Meanwhile, the minister said that the Reporters without Borders are short of updated information on the reality taking place in the media sector of Angola.

The report itself says it analyzed four TV channels only, 17 radios and roughly 20 newspapers, however according to the minister, there are many more media outlets in Angola than those mentioned in the report.

João Melo aconsidered that it does not correspond to the reality at all, the observation of the report that only the Catholic-owned radio station “Rádio Ecclesia” and a bunch of sites are producing critical and independent information.

According to the minister the observation made by the report left out, for instance, media outlets owned by the opposition, such as the case of the opposition UNITA- owned “Rádio Despertar”.

“The informants of the Reporters without Borders in Angola did not do a good job”, said the minister.

In the meantime, the minister reiterated the commitment of the Angolan authorities towards freedom of speech and press by creating in the country an open, diversified and plural communication system.

Read the original article on ANGOP.

Publicação e Imagem/Foto da autoria de Fonte Externa:
AllAfrica
24/04/2019