Information officers and the gag order

Information or Public Relations officers in every other proud democratic state are major components of any public, private or even grass root level organizations.
They are the front of established organizations, ministries and companies whether they be national, regional or international.
Usually armed with Public Relations, Marketing, Journalism or even Human Resource qualifications and experience these people can make or break the public image and reputation of an organization.
They are the shields in times of troubles and the gel in times of friction and hardships for organizations.
Public Relations officers exist to maintain a positive image of their workplace, they are experts on issues relating to them and they are well informed on happenings in their organizations.
One of their major roles is to deal with the media, and a good public relations officer is a friend of the media.
This is one of their more important roles, as through the media they can address the concerns of the public.
Having said that, PR Officers play an integral part in any established body, especially one for the people dealing with members of the public daily.
The concept of Information and PR Officers has yet to make an impact on our shores.
Apart from Ministers, CEO's continue to be the only voice allowed to speak for Government Bodies while General Managers are the point of contact for some Private Sector companies.
Although the heads of these public and private bodies are the best points of reference they are usually either unavailable or take issues too personal therefore some concerns are not addressed.
As a Journalist I appreciate PR Officers, obviously they make my job easier, but most importantly they save time and they would give me an answer within one day.
In some Ministries a gag order is placed on all its workers to prevent them from speaking to the media.
This is a very unfortunate development as without information there is no awareness of success or failures therefore the changes that should be made will rarely occur.
Although I partly understand the reason for this gag order it is unfortunate that some great minds and inspirational characters working in Government are not allowed to speak on their respective fields of expertise.
It is also unfortunate as a Journalist passionate about Environmental and Health issues not to be able to interview third level Government workers for their opinion and their take on issues.
The gag order takes away from the freedom of our supposed democratic society.
When Government workers are afraid to speak for fear of repercussions on their careers it is very unfortunate, the gag order prohibits freedom of expression one of the founding pillars of democracy.
This habit of suppression although deeply routed in our culture should be diminished to allow for development.
Freedom to information, freedom of expression and freedom of the media are the core of any free and democratic state, like Samoa, unfortunately this is not exercised here.

-Newsline