Human rights group HAK has recommended the Secretary of State for Social Communication (SEKOMS) and journalists’ group Team Five work together to fix Timor-Leste’s social communication laws as some articles are incorrect.
Human rights activist Jose Luis de Oliveira said Article 20 needed to be looked at carefully.
“We should not put sanctions on the individual journalists, but they should instead be put on their media organisations,” Oliveira said at the National Parliament. He said there were some articles which good but many needed to be changed to protect the rights of journalists.
Oliviera said as Timor-Leste was a democracy, it should have a social communication law which assures rights and obligations.
President Commission of A (constitution, public justice administration, local authority and anti-corruption affairs) MP Carmelita Moniz said laws were created to safeguard dignity of the state, as well as for workers.
“I call for you the journalists, please, you need to look at other people’s opinions. it’s a matter of press freedom and freedom of expression,” raised MP Moniz.
“We should strengthen all states of dignity.”
National Parliament Deputy President MP Aderito Hugo said the intent of article 20 was not to go against the Constitution.
“There’s no intention to limit press freedom or freedom of expression,” MP Hugo said.
He said articles 20 and 21 of the social communication law concerned giving fines to media organisations, as opposed to individual journalists.
He said one article spoke about the establishment of a press council which would act as a regulatory authority which would attempt to resolve disputes before they reached the courts.
He said the laws were a remnant from the transition time from the Indonesian period.
“It’s not the time for using others’ rules; it is proper to have our own laws with a connection with our own culture,” he said.
He said in other nations, media organisations, not individual journalists, would be prosecuted in the event in defamation cases.
