DILI, 27 july 2022 (TATOLI) – The President of the National Parliament, Aniceto Guterres encouraged the Timor-Leste News Agency TATOLI to improve its work and performance in reporting real, accurate, reliable, and timely news stories to combat fake news or HOAX in the country.
Guterres said like many other news agencies across the globe, TATOLI played a crucial role in becoming the source of information to other local media.
“We are living in a modern world and we have social media which spread lots of fake news or HOAX or information distortion. I hope that TATOLI will exercise an important role to provide accurate information to clarify those distorted information in the country,” Guterres made the comments on the sixth anniversary of the Timor-Leste News Agency or TATOLI, on july 27.
Guterres urged TATOLI’s journalists to stick to the essence of their work by finding and presenting the facts and truth to the national, regional, and global audiences.
“Thus, it’s important to combat HOAX in Timor-Leste’s society to promote the dignity of State,” he said.
When asked about the content of the news stories produced by TATOLI, Gutteres said TATOLI just needed to provide accurate information for public consumption.
“I don’t want to give any comments about the content of the news stories. But, the most important thing is I want TATOLI to deliver reliable information to the public about the State and Timorese people,” he said.
Guterres reiterated that the public preferred to consume accurate, reliable, and timely information and not fake news.
Guterres congratulated TATOLI on its sixth-anniversary commemoration: “I would like to congratulate all the staff members and journalists who are currently working at TATOLI. Keep serving the public and the people of Timor-Leste. I wish you all the best for the future.”
TATOLI is a national news agency delivering news across the country and the world in four different languages; Tetum, Portuguese, English, and Indonesian.
TATOLI was established following the decision of the Council of Ministers (CoM) on February 3, 2016, which was published in the Official Gazette of the President of the Republic march 16, 2016.
It was officially launched by former Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araújo, on june 27, 2016.
On march 7, 2017, the Council of Ministers approved the creation of TATOLI – Timor-Leste News Agency (in Portuguese: “TATOLI – Agência Noticiosa de Timor-Leste, IP”). The decision came following the creation of a news portal, then called ANTIL, in march of 2016. The main objective of TATOLI is to be the source of official information, with the production of information for national, regional, and international audiences. With a multichannel, multimedia, multiplatform and multitasking character, the News Agency may evolve and serve as a center for the production of cinema and State documentation, as a public opinion institute, as a forum for public information, as a center for the management of archives and State documentation, and as a center for communication applied training and research.
Journalist: Nelson de Sousa
Editor: Cancio Ximenes/Nelia Borges
Translation: Filomeno Martins
