Pretoria – Developing nations need to promote transparent and open government communication as this is critical for democracy and informed public, a visiting professor from the United Kingdom said today.
Professor Anne Gregory, who delivered a lecture to government employees on the challenges for government and their communication departments, said transparent and proactive communication can help to avert crisis situations in communities including service delivery protests. The lecture was held at Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) headquarters in Pretoria.
“It helps when people have an understanding of what services are provided by the government and where to get these services but if communication is not transparent enough messages will be lost,” said Gregory, who is based at Leeds Metropolitan University.
She highlighted the importance of face to face communication with the communities.
“While digital communication should be embraced, it cannot replace face to face communication.” – SAnews.gov.za
