Luanda, ANGOLA, May 31 - The secretary general of the Union of Angolan Journalists (SJA), Teixeira Cândido, suggested last Friday the creation of incentives to the private media, to strengthen the journalistic class in the country.,

The union leader participated in the meeting that the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, provided to the representatives of civil society, within the scope of the strategies to combat the covid-19 pandemic.

The SJA leader indicated that the main revenue of the private media is advertising. "Therefore, without advertising, there is no revenue".

Teixeira Cândido underlined that, as a result, the sector is experiencing difficulties and is on the verge of redundancies.

He also said had submitted such a proposal, as he understood that it is the Government's duty to help the private media sector.

"We have heads of families who have the journalistic activity as their only source of revenue", he stressed.

He noted that other countries have been adopting institutional advertising as an alternative solution. "We can even claim a right that has been with us for 30 years."

He recalled that the first press laws already provided incentives for the media.

"The private sector has been waiting for this incentive for thirty years. And we’ve never had it," he lamented.

However, he highlighted the government's initiative of wanting to encourage local production and relieve the tax burden of some companies.

The secretary general of SJA also proposed the implementation of a credit line for the acquisition of mini-printers, which could be managed by cooperatives of journalists and capable of promoting the press, especially newspapers.

In his view, it does not make sense that the country in 1974 had four newspapers, after almost 50 years of independence it has only one “Daily Newspaper and a half”, (namely) Jornal de Angola, and o País which comes out cyclically.

He then emphasised that the country cannot think of a developed economy without a proper media.

On the other hand, the representative of the sociologists association of Angola, Paulo de Carvalho – who also attended the consultation meeting organised by the Head of the Angolan Executive, President João Lourenço - noted that thanks to covid-19, Angolans are realizing their origins as humans, that is, the "cleaning of the hands and the environment around us".