Ongwediva
Information and Communication Technology Minister Tjekero Tweya has urged government officials to stop depriving the public of information it is entitled to.
Tweya said this while officiating at a workshop for government’s public relations officers (PROs) here last week. The workshop was held under a theme “Whose information is it anyway?”
According to Tweya, some PROs sit on questions put to them by the media or members of public, or literally refuse to give out information concerning government’s developmental projects. He said the situation is sometimes caused by permanent secretaries and other senior government officials, who refuse to share public information with PROs.
“The PROs need our full support and cooperation to reach out to the public. Public relations is about managing reputations, gaining understanding and support for clients, as well as trying to influence opinion and behaviour,” he said, “but they should also understand the purpose, or objective, of their organisation to convey the correct message about the organisation to the public correctly.
“The management needs to understand the environment in which PROs are functioning and also allow them to execute their responsibilities with their blessings.”
The ICT minister urged PROs to stop the tendency of withholding information meant for public consumption, because people sitting in public offices have a mandate to promote unfettered access by the media to public information.
“Some would say ‘I cannot respond to you, I do not report to you. I report to the public service commissioner, or I report to the regional council.’ You should know that you are sitting in a public office and you must report to the public. If someone wants to know when a road or a clinic in their community is going to be completed, you must respond! The public is entitled to that information,” Tweya said.
Tweya singled out New Era for praise, saying the paper publishes reliable information. He further advised government entities to support public media houses, such as New Era, by advertising with them.
“When we are placing advertisements for jobs and tenders, we should advertise with the public newspapers. New Era is our newspaper, because when we advertise with them, we are enabling them to expand – even to the villages – and disseminate information that we as government want to disseminate.
Speaking at the same event, New Era Publication Corporation (NEPC) chief executive officer Dr Audrin Mathe, re-iterated Tweya’s call to government institutions to support public media houses, such as NEPC’s newspapers and the NBC.
“NEPC spends at least N$1.6 million on printing cost for New Era and Kundana on a monthly basis. If we were printing in South Africa, the printing cost would be N$700 000, but since our local printers know that we are getting support from government, they are charging exorbitant fees,” said Mathe.
He maintained that if government institutions are not assisting both NEPC and NBC, they are simply undermining official media. Mathe further reassured the gathered officials of the quality, reliability and truthfulness of information published by both New Era and Kundana.
“Rest assured that 99.9 percent of information in an article in New Era is true,” he said.