Articulated in her Mission to “Ensure a well-governed, safe, and informed Samoa,” the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, (MPMC) this week Tuesday marched on with the 3rd annual Communication Information Liaison Officers Network (CLON) forum.
CLON was established three years ago and is designed to organize and strengthen the internal network responses by respective Communication Divisions and Officers in government to disseminate factual and timely information to stakeholders.
Since its formation, CLONs’ reach outside of the Government Sector has included independent media outlets, development partners, the private sector, the general public, etc. worldwide.
CLON is also part of the internal Communication Strategy Plan brainchild by the MPMC’s Press and Communication Division (Savali Newspaper and Government Press Secretariat) to strengthen the Government’s information sharing capacity for stakeholders to make informed decisions based on fact and not fiction.
Attended by more than 40 Government Communication Officers, MPMC’s Agafili Tomaimano Shem Leo in his launching remarks impressed on the value and importance of sharing factual and accurate government information with the masses.
“Sharing factual, informative, and accurate government information carries a lot of weight and responsibility,” Agafili stressed.
“It reflects the accountability of not just ourselves as public servants, but most importantly carries the weight of Governments’ accountability to reassure our people that we are working for their benefit and in their best interest.”
With the global informational networks under siege from the unregulated social media, government efforts via CLON, complemented by the recently launched internal Informed Samoa Policy, are in place to minimize the fables and distorted chatter condemning and criticizing government without proof littering the social media.
And for this week’s forum, its objectives include:
• To further strengthen the coordination and partnership between communication liaison officers and the Press and Communication Division in sharing the responsibilities to effectively disseminate factual government information in a timely manner.
• To review and revisit the outcomes from previous forums, including identifying and addressing weaknesses and raising issues, in order to strengthen and improve communication partnership networks across government.
• Preparation and coordination of information sharing and public responses.
• Strengthening networks between the government and independent media.
