BUJUMBURA January 23rd (ABP) – The Minister of Communication and Media, Mr. Frédéric Nahimana, proceeded, at the headquarters of the Ministry on Monday January 21, 2019, with the presentation of the achievements report for the first half of the year 2018-2019 in the presence of the press.
In the sector of communication for development, he indicated that activities related to the integral development of the people have been carried out with the objective of contributing to the reduction of the prevalence of malnutrition through communication actions among young infants and young child.
In the media sector, Nahimana said that significant progress has been made in public media whose mission is to support government action, through information and training programs, thus meeting the educational, cultural, political, economic and social objectives of the country. The State media also produced newspaper articles and reportages on national radio and television. The dissemination of broadcasts on various topics such as the environment protection; reproductive health; the fight against the fraud of minerals, coffee and other products; the awareness of the people on agricultural production and the rational use of the harvest as well as the achievement of broadcasts on the political liberties and on the 2020 electoral issues, was also a reality, the minister said.
At the level of initiatives, the Minister in charge of Communication and Media raised the popularization of satellite television in rural areas, the training of the 5th promotion of children journalists, the visit of the minister in eight public and private news organs to inquire about the state of affairs and their operation, the drawing up of the national communication strategy bill for development and others.
Mr. Nahimana also raised some of the challenges to be faced, including the lack of equipment in the departments and the lack of electricity in some sites of the Burundi National Radio and Television (RTNB) which forces it to operate with generator devices that often fail and cause broadcast disturbances.
The minister took that opportunity to provide pieces of advice to all the media working in Burundi. This is the imperative need to balance information and thematic content because some radios or newspapers may favor politics over other sectors, such as culture, music and others. The minister said that the same imbalance is evident in the regions, because it has been noticed that the vast majority of information is concentrated on the capital Bujumbura and provincial headquarters, forgetting the distant regions. At the level of the speakers in the media, Minister Nahimana affirmed that men are more questioned than women and that intellectuals are more questioned than rural people, which must be corrected.
Before the end of the assessment presentation, the minister informed the public that within three months, the national television will switch from analogue to digital system, stating that the ministry is in the process of preparing the contract for the acquisition of 190,000 decoders to be granted by the People’s Republic of China.
