The Private Press Support Fund (FAPP) held an awareness workshop for the benefit of private media promoters in the greater West yesterday Thursday February 8, 2024. The meeting took place at the Bobo-Dioulasso culture house.
This workshop is part of the popularization of the new joint decree number 2023-434/MCCAT/MEFP of October 9, 2023 relating to the management, administration, distribution and justification of the annual State subsidy to the private press.
According to the Director General of FAPP, Ag Ibrahim Mohamed, “the objective of this meeting is to raise awareness among media promoters about the new regulations, about a new joint decree which therefore governs State subsidy to the private press. In fact, the Burkinabe state grants an envelope of 400 million each year to the private press to support it in its public service mission. This is money intended to improve the working conditions of these media. This is why it is important to come and discuss so that we can fully understand these regulations.”
Major innovations from FAPP
For the Director General of FAPP, “we have expectations because in the new regulations, there are innovations. From now on, for any media, you must be up to date with your social and fiscal obligations to benefit from the State subsidy, because it is taxpayers’ money that we give to these press companies. The taxpayer cannot understand that the company that benefits does not want to pay its taxes. Also, to subscribe to the subsidy, you need material proof such as the journalist’s press card. Thus, we must go to the proof of the official document which shows the quality and status of journalist. Regarding the online press where we have the most media that benefit from the fund, it is necessary to clean up the environment a little because there are too many applicants.”
“We are very careful about quality. For the online press, you must have two years of seniority and have two journalists registered with the CNSS. In addition, these media must produce at least two articles per day throughout the year,” he specifies.
For his part, Mountamou Kani, Publication Director of L’Express du Faso and president of the Association of Press Owners of Hauts-Bassins, appreciated this framework for exchanges. “It’s a very good thing because any training is valuable. This concerns a joint decree which was taken on state subsidies to the private press and credit to press organs. By deciding to train ourselves on the new directions of these texts, this will effectively allow us to know how to go about it in time, especially to respect the conditions of the decree. And also how to justify at the end when you are a beneficiary. Our satisfaction is great because it is often difficult to manage or justify this fund, especially when we do not know the rules. So, we say that the FAPP has done useful work through this awareness workshop,” he said.
Ben Alassane DAO
