Dakar, June 27 (APS) – The Senegalese journalist and international consultant, Mactar Sylla invited, Thursday in Dakar, the public authorities to strengthen the resources of the Senegalese Press Agency (APS) in particular and the public service of the general information, which, according to him, play an “extremely important” role in the life of the country.
On the sidelines of a visit to the APS multimedia center, the former general director of Senegalese Radio and Television (RTS) made “an urgent appeal to the public authorities to strengthen the resources of these agencies, like the entire public service.”
“I am a pure product of the public service of audiovisual, I believe that the public service has a role to play and plays an extremely important role in this country,” declared the academic and entrepreneur after his meeting with the Director general of the SN-APS, Thierno Amadou Sy and his staff.
According to Sylla, the profitability of such media is not calculated as one would for a loaf of bread, but he says, “it is social, political, economic. Because the image of Senegal passes through these tools.”
He “very warmly” congratulated the APS for “the remarkable work” that it has been doing for a number of years and encouraged it to continue on this path which, according to him, is ”the path to excellence, quality and objectivity”.
”In recent years, we have seen a certain number of promising innovations which show that you are fully aware of the challenges of the media sector, in particular, of a press agency by diversifying and moving towards video and perfect coverage territories and regions in a strategic way as this showcase of Senegal that you want to be,” testified Mactar Sylla.
”Today we cannot reproach anything to the APS in terms of coverage of both national and international news,” said the founder of ”Label TV and Label Radio”. This is why he intends to think together with her to project her into the future, to move towards other languages by translating the reports into versions such as Russian, Chinese, Turkish, English, Arabic among others, “international languages which will allow other people who are in love with our country to follow”.
Senegal, according to him, “is followed today, it has visibility which can be added and translated in terms of investment, notoriety and development.”
Mactar Sylla also called on the APS to work for “permanent improvement” of its human resources, asking the State to consolidate its premises in the city center in order to bring together all its staff there because, he said, ”this place is accessible”.
FKS/OID/ASB
