The current board of the General Assembly of the Macau Portuguese and English Press Association (AIPIM) will remain in their positions, as no list of candidates were submitted for the 2021/2023 governing bodies.
A statement issued yesterday by the association explained, “The General Assembly of AIPIM did not receive, until the time limit provided for in the Statutes, any candidate list for the governing bodies for the 2021/2023 biennium.”
The statement is in accordance with paragraph 3 of article 32 of the AIPIM Statutes, “The holders, however, will remain in their respective positions until the investiture of those who replace them.”
It informed the members that the General Assembly convened for March 27 will still be held as planned, with the agenda including the annual management report and the balance sheet and accounts for 2020.
The current vice president of AIPIM and adjunct director of TDM’s Portuguese Information and Programs Channels, Gilberto Lopes, came up with a list but decided to retract it.
“I removed the list that I had presented,” Lopes briefly told the Times.
When questioned as to the association’s plans given that the board members will continue their existing roles, the current president of the General Assembly, Joao Francisco Pinto, only stressed that, according to the association by-laws, the current managing bodies will continue to serve until they are replaced by those elected.
Pinto serves as the director of TDM’s Portuguese Information and Programs Channels.
Both the tenure of Lopes and Pinto at TDM has recently been renewed for six months. The normal period of tenure is one year.
Ensuring press freedom
Another press group, the Macau Journalists Association (AJM), has asked TDM for a position that guarantees freedom and does not treat journalists as tools for political purposes, local media reported.
This comes after recent reports on TDM’s alleged latest editorial guidelines, which note that news coverage should promote patriotism, respect and love for the motherland and Macau.
Failure to do so may result in dismissal.
The statement published by AJM came on Tuesday night following a meeting with TDM reporters and management on Monday, calling on TDM to assume the role of public broadcaster without constraints.
“TDM directors must take a clearer stand to guarantee independence in news coverage and rebuild the confidence of their reporters. The association expects TDM to be able, through its actions, to fulfill its promise to ‘maintain the editorial line’ and ‘report the truth’, as previously stated in a statement,” AJM said.
The association, which consists of Chinese-speaking journalists, also urged the government
to “recognize its contribution and commit to the protection of press freedom, in accordance with the Basic Law.”
In a statement last week, TDM said that it has not changed its current policy on news coverage.
AIPIM has also issued a statement expressing “grave concern about the seriousness of the implications” for freedom of press.
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