"We hope so, because this sign that the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, gave presupposes that yes, we will believe that yes, that really the days of membership and difficulties that we have experienced are overcome," said this Thursday the secretary general of the Union of Angolan Journalists (SJA), Teixeira Cândido.
According to the trade unionist, who was speaking to Lusa at the end of a meeting they held with the Minister of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Media (MTTICS), Manuel Homem, the current scenario of the private press "is critical and emergency".
The need to maintain jobs and the functioning of companies "fundamentally that media company workers are able to support their families" were the points that guided the meeting.
The meeting, which took place at the MTTICS headquarters in Luanda, followed a letter that a group of directors from the private media and the EYS addressed to the President requesting his intervention in order to "address financial difficulties in the sector".
"The situation was already critical, but with the pandemic the situation has worsened, the only source of revenue for the media, fundamentally private, is advertising and if there is no advertising the companies cannot survive," he noted.
This "worrying situation" of the private media, he pointed out, "has motivated us to launch a cry for help to the President of the Republic and he has guided the Minister of Telecommunications, Information Technology and Media to work with us".
Teixeira Cândido noted that despite the absence of a time horizon, the situation of the organs "is emergency", hoping that "the solutions will appear as soon as possible because the situation is critical".
"Yes, it's emergency, because companies don't have the capacity, there are companies with salary delays, the Média Nova group itself has companies that don't pay salaries, they were almost unable to pay the March salary", he stressed.
According to the secretary general of the Union of Angolan Journalists, there are companies that "do not know how they will pay April salaries. So the situation is critical," he said.
Previously to Lusa, the EJA and the Institute for Social Communication of Southern Africa (MISA) Angola had already expressed the "gloomy picture" that the private sector the media pointing to the "reduction of advertising to more than half" as the main factors.
Angola enters this Thursday for the sixth day of the second extension of the state of emergency that extends until May 10.
The country already has 27 confirmed cases of covid-19, including 18 active cases, two deaths and seven recovered.
