Editors discuss issues affecting them in forum |11 November 2014

Why has the Seychelles Media Commission not reacted to Pure FM radio station’s decision to stop airing its economy programme with Ahmed Afif and why are government ministries and agencies not advertising in political newspapers were some of the hot issues discussed during yesterday’s editors’ forum.

Organised by the Seychelles Media Commission, the forum took place at the ex-National Assembly hall at National House and also featured a presentation on the Maldives Broadcasting Commission by its commissioner Mohamed Aslam.
 
The commission’s president Mohamed Shahyb was also present and answered the many queries the editors and other media houses’ representatives had.

An independent body, the Maldives Broadcasting Commission came into existence on April 4, 2011 and issues broadcasting licences to broadcasters and rebroadcasters in the archipelago of 1,200 coralline islands.

The Seychelles Media Commission, whose chairman and chief executive is Ibrahim Afif, once again said it is working on reviewing the existing media-related legislations and these include the Seychelles Media Commission Act.

With local media practitioners needing more training to better understand the ethics and what journalism entails, the commission said it will be running a seminar in December on how to report about judicial proceedings. This follows many complaints received by the commission that the reporting of some media houses has influenced the judgement in some court cases.

Members of the commission also explained that there is an ongoing investigation into why the FM radio station decided to stop airing its economy programme with Ahmed Afif and that the outcome will be made public.

On the issue of advertising, a former editor said government ministries and agencies favours one particular newspaper and described it as some kind of subsidy, but the Seychelles Media Commission said it thinks it is more a question of the advertisers’ choice.

This was the second editors’ forum after the first one held in September last year.