New Department of Information to run PM's information unit [1]
Tuesday, August 14, 2007 - 17:09. Updated on Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - 12:08.
The Information Unit at the Prime Minister's office will soon come under the jurisdiction of the new Department of Information, said Hon 'Afu'alo Matoto, Tonga's recently appointed Minister of Information.
Hon. 'Afu'alo, who is also the Minister of Public Enterprise, hopes that the moving of the Information Unit to his department could be done before the end of September.
The Information Unit will come with about three employees and be responsible for the Prime Minister's office website.
'Afu'alo also clarified that by having the new Department it would not restrict other Government Ministries from releasing their own information to the media and public about a particular matter.
"But the Department will release information about Government and mainly information from the PM's office."
He said the set-up of this new body would enable Government to be more responsive to the media and, secondly, for Government to be responsible when releasing information to the public.
"The media have been complaining about Government not being responsive to issues they inquire about and the public are also feeling that Government is not releasing enough information.
"So with things like this, the Department could push other Government Ministries to release information, for example, on the status of the proposed reconstruction of Nuku'alofa because people want to know what is happening," he added.
Not impartial
'Afu'alo said that a problem now was that people were making speculations on what Government is doing and at times those speculations were wrong because they are not releasing the right information.
The releasing of information from the Information Unit at the Prime Minister's Office had been off and on and in events like the Government Civil Servants Strike in 2005 and the 16/11 riots in Nuku'alofa they were not impartial to just be a source of information.
"But they instead used it as a tool for their own politics and that is one of the reasons why the public does not trust what is coming out," he said.
"So what we are hoping to do in this new Department of Information is to provide factual information and solely become a source of information with less opinions expressed."
The Department of Information will be based at the Ministry of Public Enterprise office at the old Westpac Bank of Tonga Building on Railway Road, Nuku'alofa.
'Afu'alo was appointed as Minister of Information effective from July 20.