In Chad, the standoff between the Online Media Association of Chad and the High Audiovisual Authority which prohibits news sites from producing audiovisual content continues against the backdrop of an indefinite strike launched by these media for three days, and while the electoral campaign for the legislative and local elections on December 29 is in full swing. Thursday, December 12, Hama convened Amet but this meeting turned out to be a real dialogue of the deaf.
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Several leading institutions, notably the prime minister or even the mediator, seized by theChad Online Media Association (Amet), had been pushing for several days for both parties to water down their wine.
But the dialogue between the colleagues of the High audiovisual authority (Hama) and the executive office of Amet came to an end, as soon as the representatives of the online media announced that they had appealed to the administrative court to suspend the decision of the press regulatory body. Hama considered that “as soon as justice is seized, we are relinquished “.
“ It is immediately after the discussion with them that we should deliberate: whether to review the decision on palpable evidence or not, explains the president of Hama, Abderamane Barka. But we cannot discuss, basically, as long as the court is seized, because that would provide them with the necessary elements of defense to rely on it before the courts. »
An “informational black hole” denounced by Amet
L’Ametwhich denounces a “ discourteous summons “, says it is still ready to continue negotiations with Hama, but refuses to withdraw its complaint until Hama reverses its decision. “ We denounced a decision, recalls the president of Amet, Bello Bakary. He summons us to audition us. That’s what the summons says. We still went to introduce ourselves, so we demonstrated our good faith. And as soon as we announced that we had taken legal action, they refused dialogue. But we are always ready to dialogue because we can discuss. If we find a solution, we can remove it. »
Amet also denounces a “ informational black hole » in the middle of the legislative election campaign. “ Today, we are unanimous, we will go to the end since the cat is in a black hole, recalls Bello Bakary. It is the fault of Hama, which every day, instead of promoting journalists, the media, and reflecting on their economic model (…) only hits the online press. »
For Hama, a large part of these media took advantage of its tolerance to produce content which does not respect the rules of the profession and which could prove dangerous, especially during this electoral period.
The situation was becoming more and more serious because there are media outlets that have posted prices for interviews, for portraits for example. However, political advertising is prohibited, particularly during electoral campaigns. We also banned interactive broadcasts because the productions did not meet the technical and professional conditions.
The president of the High Audiovisual Authority in Chad, Abderamane Barka
The Chadian Convention for the Defense of Human Rights (CTDH) provided its support to Amet this Friday. She denounces “ unjustified censorship ” And ” demands the repeal of restrictive measures” which “undermine freedom of expression “.
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