Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Presidency of the Republic presented, today, to the Regulatory Authority for the Media (ARC) two complaints against the Directorate of Television of Cabo Verde, TCV, for disrespectful treatment to the Organ of Sovereignty President of the Republic.
According to a press release from the Presidency of the Republic, which reached our editorial office, the first complaint concerns the “non-dissemination” of the New Year’s message from the President of the Republic on TCV, on December 31, 2022, as has been the practice since the First Republic.
“An unprecedented situation that violates the principles of the Democratic Rule of Law and that restricts the voice of the highest Magistrate of the Nation, in direct communication to the country”, he argues.
Non-issuance of year-end message
The flaw, explains the document, “becomes more serious”, taking into account that the public station’s Jornal da Noite, whose broadcast on that day was anticipated, published extracts from the President of the Republic’s message, “which proves that TCV had early access to the content, which was sent via email, in the morning of the same day”.
Discrimination
The second complaint concerns the “discriminatory and disproportionate” treatment of the President of the Republic, José Maria Neves, in the journalistic coverage of the conference “Public Television – service and innovation”, within the scope of the 25 years of RTP Africa, whose closing the Head of State presided.
“The reporting team left the site shortly before the arrival of the President of the Republic, in an act that was attended and intervened by other figures of State, who deserved to be reported in the news editions”, they justify.
“The treatment is unequal, disrespectful and disproportionate because it is completely ignored, calling into question the rigor and impartiality that should characterize the information service of a communication body, especially a public one”, they clarify.
The Presidency of the Republic also explains in the aforementioned document that “even respecting the editorial freedom of the television station, it is not clear where the lack of public interest in the President of the Republic’s communication in an event of such scope will be”.
the case
It should be noted that in the aforementioned conference, José Maria Neves criticized the Public Television of Cape Verde, stating that there is a regression in terms of public service provision.
“There are areas where there are clearly regressions. This is the case of public television, where there is a strong regression in terms of quality, in terms of performance and the provision of public social communication services”, said José Maria Neves.
The criticism did not go down well within TCV and the Director of that public station, António Teixeira, reacted on TCV’s antennas, as RFI said, with a certain irony.
“The President of the Republic is absolutely right when he says that public television has regressed, it has regressed because we started to pay much more attention to the activities of the Presidency of the Republic than before; it regressed because we started giving a lot more coverage to the First Lady, that he said the First Lady shouldn’t get the attention she’s been getting because she doesn’t have First Lady status; regressed because it stopped receiving indications from journalists to accompany the President of the Republic on visits and regressed because the President of the Republic stopped including public television teams in his travels, despite this he started to report news made by cameras and advisors of the Presidency of the Republic” .
disrespect
The Presidency of the Republic considers that this reaction was disrespectful.
“At the same time, the undignified and, in all aspects, disrespectful reaction of the Director of TCV, in Jornal da Noite, towards the Head of State and representative of the entire Nation deserves the most vehement public repudiation from the other sovereign bodies and the civil society, such is the trivialization that is intended to be given to the statements of the President of the Republic”, condemns the Presidency, in the aforementioned communiqué.
Immediate measures
She says she now expects “appropriate and immediate measures” that can “remedy this type of posture before the sovereign body of the President of the Republic, directly elected by the people”.
Finally, they clarify that the President of the Republic “at no time called into question the performance and seriousness of Cabo Verdean media professionals”, and the position was in relation to “the quality and provision of public service by Cabo Verde Television ”, which “reached its apex in the non-dissemination of the New Year’s message”.
This message is “one of the most significant moments in which the President of the Republic addresses the entire Nation that elected him as its highest representative”.
AJOC says that PR “must have its reasons”
It should be noted that the President of AJOC Geremias Furtado also reacted, with brief words, at TCV, to the stir created, stating that the PR, if it made the aforementioned considerations about TCV, “must have its reasons”.
The same suggested carrying out a public opinion survey, as has already been done at other times, to find out what Cape Verdeans think and how they evaluate TCV.
It now remains to wait for the outcome of the complaints submitted to the ARC by the Presidency of the Republic, it being certain that the matter will still continue to be talked about in Cape Verdean society.
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