Government of Timor-Leste

The CEFTEC (Technical Training Centre for Communication) and the CENJOR (Protocol Centre for Professional Training of Journalists), with the support of the Civil Service Commission, organised the first Communication Seminar under the topic “Interaction with the Media”. The seminar took place on 23 March 2013 at the Hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in Díli.

With a high degree of participation of Media Officers, the event – under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers – counted on a distinguished panel of national and international speakers, notably former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, Secretary of State of the Council of Ministers Avelino Coelho, Secretary of State for the Media Nélio Isaac Sarmento, President of the Civil Service Commission Libório Pereira, Reverend Father Martinho Gusmão, the Adviser of the Presidency of the Republic Gabriela Carrascalão, and the journalists and trainers of CENJOR João Carlos Barradas and Cristina Guerreiro.

The President of the Civil Service Commission opened up the seminar with his opening speech in which he listed the general duties of the media officers who are, in general, civil servants: “the duty of loyalty, the duty of obedience, the duty of zeal, the duty of professional secrecy, the duty of impartiality, the duty of assiduity, the duty of punctuality, and the general duty of all functionaries and agents of the public administration to act with a view to strengthen confidence in the actions of the public administration.”

João Carlos Barradas, speaking on the main topic of the seminar, stressed that “the principle to be observed in order to ensure a sound interaction with the media is always the same: one should be the strictest possible and omit the least possible”. Cristina Guerreiro also stressed that the training of technical staff from national institutions is indispensable to a sound functioning of a democratic governance.

The national speakers focused mainly on the performance of the activity of media officers, the relations between State institutions and the media bodies, the inter-ministerial relations and the institutional communication. In accordance with Father Martinho Gusmão, “media officers should read more and seek to learn more and more so that they can perform their functions better and represent properly their institutions.”

Gabriela Carrascalão, addressing an audience of more than 300 guests, strengthened the idea according to which “administrative management should allow their communication technicians to be well informed of internal situations so that the media officers within the institutions can be in a position to answer questions posed by journalists.”

Former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri made the closing speech, in which he underscored the importance of professionalizing the internal services of the State as well as the differences of functions of the various professions, notably those of advisers, lawyers and journalists. He strengthened the idea according to which National Stability is achieved through the improvement in the performance of all functionaries of the various institutions. He also stressed that a strong opposition is an opposition that raises questions to the Government.

This seminar is part of the second phase of the programme of specialised training for journalists (2013). The programme is financed by the European Union in the framework of the Media Programme – Delegated Cooperation in Portugal – and is implemented through a cooperation protocol that has been established between the Governments of Timor-Leste and Portugal.

In attendance to this event were the Speaker of the National Parliament, Vicente Guterres, the Deputy Speaker of the National Parliament, Adérito Hugo da Costa, members of the Executive, the Diplomatic Corps, representatives of Portugal and the European Union, the Ambassador of Brazil, General-Directors, National Directors, Heads of Departments and media officers.