AFRICA/IVORY COAST - Church media work in times of Covid

Saturday, 16 January 2021 media   local churches   coronavirus  

Abidjan (Agenzia Fides) - The first ordinary session of the Episcopal Social Media Commission of 2021 met in Yamoussoukro from January 11th to 14th. About a dozen communication officers from the dioceses and employees of the local church media emphasized the negative effects of the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic on media work. The focus of the conference was the future of the two most important Catholic media, the Catholic radio station RNC, and television of the Catholic Church of the Ivory Coast, Ecclésia TV. "We discussed the management of our facilities since the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic and asked ourselves: what have we achieved, what have we achieved so far, what alternatives have we found so that our radios, our televisions, our newspapers and magazines work?", said to Fides Fr. Augustin Obrou, National Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commission for social media. Questions that, according to Fr. Obrou, were answered in the innovations brought about by a restructuring of the programs and editorial offices, as the media today must offer a new way to carry out their mission in times of pandemic and to be close to the faithful to maintain. For this reason, programs have been expanded above all, which enable dialogue with the faithful and listening, and programs with the transmission of masses and moments of prayer have been added. At the end of the meeting, the Chairman of the Episcopal Media Commission, Bishop Raymond Ahoua of Grand-Bassam, saidon January 14th: "I think everyone should preserve our identity and pursue specific goals. We are not in competition with other media and therefore we must remain calm". (S.S.) (Agenzia Fides, 16/1/2021)


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