Gov’t to promote information flow

KIGALI - As one of the resolutions of the February Kivu Leaders Retreat, the government is working on measures to ensure faster and efficient flow of information to the public. This was announced by the Minister of Information, Protais Musoni, during a news briefing yesterday. According to Musoni, the government recognizes the importance of communication in the socio-economic development of the country. “Communicate, tell our story and account for what we do; admit our mistakes and shortcomings,” said the Minister, quoting from the retreat report. The report further suggests that leaders should debate their challenges and be confident by sharing the facts and their efforts to address them within institutions, and with the outside world. “Plan ahead, engage the public and communicate policies before implementing them,” reads the report. Minister Musoni urged the media to work with the government to promote public understanding of the public policies and programmes. He added that the move is in line with the government’s commitment to transparency and accountability. To meet the objective, government is putting in place several measures to ensure efficient and effective flow of information. The initiatives include the Migration of ORINFOR (the public broadcaster) from analog to digital, which, the minister said, is almost complete. What remains is the installation of microwave links which, he said, will be complete by next month. He noted that the draft of the Access to Information Law is being studied by the Cabinet and will place Rwanda among the few countries that have such a law. It aims at facilitating intra government flow of information and communication with the public. Explaining the progress of ORINFOR, the Acting Director General Willy Rukundo, said that the government has supported the migration project to the tune of $12 million. The deadline set by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and EAC from analogue to digital migration is 2015. “New masts have been constructed and nine refurbished. All the transmission sites have new digital transmitters for both FM radio and digital TV to increase efficiency in the transmission of information.” Rukundo said, adding that the infrastructure will be shared with other broadcasters in the country. Ends

National

Gov’t to promote information flow