By Levison Lester and Sellah Singini
Lilongwe, November 17: Director of Communications at State House, Kent Mphepo has said Malawians are at liberty to know what the government is doing because communication is critical, as far as national development is concerned.
Speaking in Lilongwe at Bingu International Convention Center (BICC) on Friday during an interface meeting on Local Authority Communications for District Information Officers (DIOs), Mphepo said communication is critical in wealth, job creation and food security hence people need to access it.
“The President has three priorities which are Agriculture, Tourism and Mining (ATM). ATM is an extension of three issues which include; wealth creation, job creation and food security. It is very critical therefore that this initiative needs to be communicated and be relayed. People need to know what their leader is doing,” he said.
In his remarks, Director of Information Chikumbutso Mtumodzi highlighted that the interface meeting is critical in imparting knowledge to information officers working across the country, as their role in making information available to the public is vital.
“This meeting is not only significant to the DIOs, but also to the country because they are critical in the national agenda of safeguarding democracy and achieving socio-economic development.
“Gathering, processing and promoting developments throughout the local authorities is the very essence of what government is all about. This is why this interface meeting is very important to this country,” Mtumodzi said.
Speaking earlier, treasure general for Public Relations Society of Malawi (PRSM), Grace Hara, said the interface meeting has come at a right time when the PRSM is making strides in working together with government information officers and also PR officers from MDAs who mostly are not their members.
“It is in our interest that we engage the ministry responsible for information and digitization so that we have PROs and information officers in PRSM.
“Another appeal to the ministry is to make the training for information officers an annual event so that information officers are kept up to date with latest trends in PR, as this will enable them to effectively manage public narrative throughout the country,” she said.
