Presidential Meeting

It was a relaxed conversation that went on for about 45 minutes and covered substantial issues, not merely a "grip and grin." After seeing so much "official footage" of President Gayoom it was like meeting a movie star to see him in person. He spoke in confident, conversational English and shared his feelings about the changes we had made in the TV and radio news coverage.
I gave a short summary of the seven page report we had prepared, suggesting how the president's press office could issue releases and daily schedules that would help the press plan independent coverage instead of mandating word for word coverage after the fact.
Remember that this man has been in this office for 30 years; it would be as if Jimmy Carter was still president since the 1970s. He acknowledged the discussions of the mandatory ceremonial footage on TV giving the impression that he is distant from his people. We are told this was the first time he has publicly discussed the transition from government run media to public service media, at least with outsiders like our team.
We had a specific instance to discuss: the previous day he had visited the Youth Ship, a group of kids selected to travel the entire island chain spreading a message of hope for the future. During the lengthy speeches and ceremonies, there was word of a 7.6 earthquake in Sumatra which was felt as a 4.3 in Male, and a tsunami watch was issued. TV ran a crawl, but radio was afraid to break into the president's speech.
Turns out the president received the alert on his cellphone and was concerned about the possiblility of a tsunami while giving his speech. Of course, he said, the official stuff could be interrupted for a bulletin. He recalled the that hotel bombing occured last fall during a religious program on TV and rumors spread throughout the capital until the program was over and TVM could go on the air with what happened. Turns out that it's okay for news to interrupt as necessary, except during the most important Friday prayers. Hopefully, God won't allow anything bad to happen during that 35 minute period.
We will be following up with the president's press secretary and the man who writes the press releases, so only time will tell if they are willing to change their relationship with the broadcast media.