MAY 03, 2023
Members of the public, University scholars, and media practitioners in Bosaso joined the Puntland media guild – (MAP) – to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the World Press Freedom Day 2023.
The event organized by MAP in partnership with the UN Assistance Mission in #Somalia (UNSOM) saw a wide-ranging panel discussion featuring veteran journalists Burhan Ahmed Dahir and Faduma who spoke on the history of challenges that the Puntland media broke-through whereas spoke on the current state of the media, which was later consolidated by a press-conference held the MAP chair – Mohamed Dahir.
The chair spoke on the ongoing local democratization process in which Puntland is/will be making history the fact that citizens will be heading to cast their ballots on May 25th, 2023 for the first time in 50years.
Mohamed alarmed on the importance free flow of information, the publics right to information and the policy gap to the right to information – straight forward calling for the immediate actions to establish the access to information act.
The right to access information is enshrined in the article 3, clause 7 of the Puntland Media Law (2016) but remains to be established yet the need to establish the information act is extremely urgent.
The reality is that without sufficient information, journalists cannot perform their fundamental duty of informing the public. The right of the entire society to receive information is compromised when journalists’ access to information is restricted.
‘’A democratic society must have a culture of open information exchange because it fosters good governance, public empowerment, proactive disclosure, and accountability. We call on the Puntland authorities to support the MAP initiative that seeks to establish the Access to information act’’.
Chair, Mohamed Dahir
See the full statement of the MAP chair press conference:
https://bit.ly/3VyaFTP
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