The 1st Meeting of the National Consultative Forum for 2015 was held this morning at State House under the chairmanship of President James Michel. The meeting was also the first in a series of Forum meetings on the role of the media in national development.

The President welcomed all members to the first meeting for the 2015 and noted that 2014 had been a fruitful year for the Forum, where members discussed issues of national importance. He also thanked the members for their contribution to the Education Strategic Plan and said that the Forum will be looking closely at media in Seychelles.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank members for their contribution to the Education Strategic Plan, which will give a lot of ideas to government, the Ministry of Education on how to move ahead with the necessary reforms. The Ministry has already started to work on these reforms. As agreed by members, this year we will be looking at the media landscape in Seychelles,” said the President in his opening remarks.

In this morning's meeting, the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation made a presentation to the Forum on its structure and functioning as an independent State broadcaster. 

It updated the Forum on its plans to introduce digital television broadcasting during the course of 2015 which would enable it to offer a broader range of programmes for its viewers.  It reported that in addition to its traditional radio and television audience, there was growing interest in its programmes available online.

The Forum advised that the SBC consider undertaking a satisfaction survey of its services, including the number of listeners and viewers that it had for its various programmes.

Members of the Forum felt that the SBC was providing a generally good service within the resource constraints under which it operated.  The Forum advised that the SBC should focus on improving the quality of its broadcasts, and ensuring that its reporting of current affairs was well-balanced and provided opportunities for diverse points of view to be heard.  Members advised that more journalists should be recruited and receive quality training to serve the nation's growing media industry.

In responding to Members' concerns about the lack of depth and detail in some reporting, the SBC pointed out that it encountered great difficulties in obtaining timely information and interviews from many of the organisations contacted by its journalists.  The Forum advised that Government organisations should set the example by being more open to the press, especially now that Press Officers had been appointed to facilitate these tasks.

The Forum also requested SBC to ensure that its transmissions reflected the balance of national languages, and that journalists and interviewees respected the proper use of each language.

The Forum advised that SBC should provide better coverage of arts and culture so that the work of local artists, actors, dancers  and musicians could be better appreciated.

In other matters, Forum Members expressed concern regarding tourism yield despite the number of tourist arrivals having remained steady.  The problem would be explored further in conjunction with a planned tourism carrying capacity study.  The Forum noted the importance of safeguarding the natural environment of the country, and that well designed sustainable tourism developments could contribute to such preservation while raising revenue for conservation.