East Timor: Media Should Help Implement Use of Portuguese - CNRT Leader 10 Jan-13:30

A senior East Timorese leader urged the territory's fledgling media Wednesday to draw up a code of ethics, create "opinion rather than divisions" and help promote the use of the Portuguese language.

Mario Carrascalao, vice president of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT), also challenged the first-ever congress of journalists in Dili to seek self-sufficiency to avoid manipulation "by political leaders".

Lamenting that East Timor did not yet have a single Portuguese- language newspaper, Carrascalao reminded the congress that Portuguese had been chosen as an official language and that it was now "up to us to take steps to implement it".

After his speech, Carrascalao, who addressed the gathering in Portuguese, was asked to repeat his comments in Indonesian Bahasa, the language most used by the assembled journalists.

January Menu
December 2000
World Leaders Contact List
Human Rights Violations in East Timor
Main Postings Menu