FORMER journalist Deputy Lucy Stephenson has been appointed an assistant chief minister with responsibility for government communications.
The Deputy, who serves in the St Ouen, St Mary and St Peter district, will oversee Action Two of the Council of Ministers’ 100 Day Plan, which aims to deliver a review and recommendations on how the government can better engage with Islanders, especially harder to reach audiences, and how it can improve its release and presentation of information and data.
Deputy Stephenson, a former assistant editor at the JEP, said: ‘I am delighted to take up this post and to have delegated responsibility for government communications.
‘I stood for election on a platform of openness and transparency and wanting to see improvements made to the way government communicates and connects with Islanders. This appointment will help me to deliver that for the benefit of our Island.
‘Making sure that the Council of Ministers authentically listens to and communicates with Islanders is vitally important and I’m encouraged by the direction being taken by my ministerial colleagues already to that end.
‘However, there is more work to do and I am looking forward to embracing that challenge. It will be my job to guide and support the communications directorate in undertaking their duties as they support more proactive engagements between my fellow ministers and Islanders.’
The government says that the Communications Directorate has recently reduced the size of its centralised team, encouraging ministers to work more proactively with the media and engaging with Islanders.
