Over a dozen members of the Association of Media Practitioners Seychelles (AMPS) staged a silent protest at the Stad Popiler car park in town on Saturday to call for more respect and an end to insults and threats against journalists.
It followed an insurge in personal attacks and intimidations against journalists. The recent one against Rassin Vannier, the presenter of the television programme ‘Lopinyon’ aired on the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC).
According to the association’s vice-chairperson, Joana Nicette, they wanted to denounce those attacks, which are mostly on social media, but have recently been levelled against journalists while they are carrying out their duties in public.
“We want to say enough is enough, this should be condemned. We are not here to please political or religious groupings or any other group for that matter, we are here to inform the population,” said Mrs Nicette.
The majority of media houses were represented at the silent protest and AMPS said it was satisfied with the turnout.
The journalists present were all calling for respect and an end to intimidation. Sports journalist from the SBC, Georges François, said it should come from all fronts “and we should be allowed to do our job without interference”.
Tessa Henderson felt there was a lack of appreciation for the work of the media, which she said was tough and demanding and mean that sometimes journalists may err, albeit rarely.
«This does not mean that we have to be met with an onslaught of insults, which can sometimes become too personal and go as far as target our families. That is why a colleague, Gervais Henrie, and I set up AMPS in 2014, because we felt journalists needed a voice and today these challenges are still here and that is why we need to stand up for the profession,” said Ms Henderson.
Journalist Cyril Lautee said he had turned up in solidarity with his fellow colleagues. “We always hear head of states talking about media as the fourth pillar of a society, but where is the respect for that fourth pillar? We cannot just insult the media and pretend that it is okay, so this is me showing solidary towards my fellow media practitioners,” he said
The gathering also saw the presence of non-media practitioners, one of them being Jean-Marc Lablache, who said “media is being bullied especially by the politicians and we need to send a strong message that they should maintain their independence”.
Meanwhile it should be noted that AMPS had a meeting with the head of state in the middle of last week, where they discussed a number of pertinent issues namely media and hate speech, political interference, new regulations for social media to prevent personal attacks, threats and abuse, access to information and media inclusivity and registration of freelance journalists, among others.
Mrs Nicette described the meeting as friendly, frank and open where both sides were able to express themselves freely, highlight the weaknesses and disappointment as well as the positive sides, and come up with plausible solutions.
«Today you have people saying that we were not free in the past and we should be grateful of that freedom and the fact that we can express ourselves freely and openly. I just want to say that this is the freedom we want to preserve, the one we fought so hard to get. Rest assured we will defend it regardless who attack it, be it political or religious leaders. I can assure you that the president understood our point and we also agreed with him when he pointed some loopholes and weaknesses in our work as well,” said Mrs Nicette.
She added that the two sides discussed the way forward and AMPS will be making some proposal shortly which will be taken by the cabinet of ministers.
Saturday’s protest started at 11am and lasted for one and a half hours.
The accompanying photos show some highlights of the protest.
Source: Seychelles Nation