Dili - The newly-elected Members of Timor-Leste Press Council, Period 2021-2024, appointed by National Parliament, will continue to work hard for Timor-Leste Press Council which been functioning in the first four-year office term without any political influence or interference.
“Parliament elected us, based on our merits, the merit of professional journalism and the merit of the professional judiciary, we came as the elected members, we are here to continue to fix as a response to various aspects, one is how to fix the journalists welfare and journalistic products, “ Explained the elected member, Expedito Loro Diaz Ximenes, to Journalists at the meeting room of Timor-Leste Press Council, in a press conference, which was held on Monday (25/01/2021).
Expedito promised to continue defending the freedom of press and freedom of expression, saying he would not transmit any political message to the Press Council, although they were nominated by the politicians in the Parliament.
At the same place, the newly-elected member, Benevides Correia Barros said “Democracy is the foundation of the media development in Timor-Leste.
“The democratic nation means that the law is above all. This is a democratic nation, our government performs that, commitment to putting the law in practice of one thing called democracy, it’s an important value for the development progress of the media in Timor-Leste. “Explained Benevides.
Meanwhile, Media Owner Representative, Otelio Ote, said he was committed to the duty of the Press Council to help strengthen the knowledge of journalists and the media’s owners.
“Many people don’t understand the competency of Timor-Leste Press council; Press council only solves the problem concerning the content and journalism products. We concentrate on journalism’s quality and one thing we require from the media owners is to be opened in participating whenever the Press Council open a way to enhance journalism’s quality, everybody should come by participating in the training, should be activated in all programs, said Otelio Ote.
Abiding Social Communication law, article 44 concerning the competence of press council is to promote the freedom of the press, freedom of expression and to the independence of the media from the influence of anyone, group or Political and economic interests.
The Article 45, Social Communication law states the composition of the Press Council as follows, two representatives are nominated by the country’s journalists, one representative of the media owners and the other two are politically nominated by the National Parliament that consists of one legal expert and one media expert.