By NNN-APS
Algier : President of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika put forward on Thursday the need for Algeria’s development of a “professional, free, independent press that is aware of its responsibilities,” in a message on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day.
The Head of State praised, in his message, “the role the press played in the consolidation of democracy and the promotion of development all around the world” and paid a strong tribute to the “journalists and executives of the sector, who, during hard moments made huge sacrifices for the freedom to inform.”
“We can today assess the progress achieved in our country in the freedom of speech and the pluralism of opinion as well as the path to go through so that our press fully assumes its role of powerful lever of promotion of the social and economic development and the democratic construction of our country,” he raised.
The president of the Republic expressed his “conviction” that “the national, public and private alike, will know how to meet these expectations and play completely its role of information and educational, defence of our fundamental values and of national interest.”
“Beyond its traditional mission of information, the press has to become, by its professionalism, one of the engines of our national recovery started since the beginning of this century,” he underlined.
That is why, he added, “we registered at the top of our priorities to take all the measures to bring to the journalist the necessary protection for a serene and confident exercise of his profession.”
“We so want to dedicate the right for the journalist for an in-service training and for perfection recycling. For that purpose, it would be necessary to plan the creation of a training and perfection centre in the professions of journalism and communication,” the Head of State indicated.
This centre, he explained, “would bring to the corporation the required knowledge and know-how for the profound alterations which concern information and communication sector,” a sector which, he noted, “has to face the redoubtable challenges of the informative revolution in the world and its consequences on communication at the national level.”