AJOC president regrets Inforpress administrator being appointed by the government

He also deplored the fact that the position of director of information at the Cape Verde News Agency was not promoted through an internal competition.

However, the leader of the Cape Verde Journalists' Trade Union Association (AJOC) welcomed Cape Verde's 11-point rise in the international press freedom ranking, published today by "Reporters Without Borders", which places the archipelago in 30th position out of 180 countries.

"We have full confidence in the work of Reporters Without Borders and welcome [the country's] rise."

For him, this rise shows that Cape Verde is doing something for press freedom.

"We shouldn't throw in the towel either and say that everything has already been done for press freedom in Cape Verde and not work to influence further action to improve the situation," Furtado appealed.

Geremias Furtado disagrees with the part of the "Reporters without Borders" report in which it states that the managers of public bodies are still appointed directly by the government, considering this an "oversight".

"At Rádio Televisão Cabo Verdiana there is an independent board that elects the directors of this body, although AJOC disagrees with the composition of this independent board," said the president of AJOC.

The AJOC president made these remarks on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of a conference on Press Freedom Day promoted by the organization he heads.

However, according to him, there are situations that Cape Verdean journalists must continue to fight against, namely job insecurity which is a "chronic problem".

"We have journalists with salaries that fall short of expectations, fixed-term contracts that don't satisfy us, overloaded working hours and other situations that the AJOC has been denouncing recently," he concluded.

Inforpress/End