Media Needs More Investment ? Pratt

The Managing Director of New Times Corporation (NTC), Nabanyin Pratt, has reiterated the need for greater investment in the media in order to make access to information cheaper for ordinary Ghanaians.

?We can only get a better media if we are ready to invest in it,? he said, adding that the media business had been taken for granted in spite of its important role in society.

Mr Pratt made these remarks during the ?Minister of the Year 2003? awards ceremony, which was held by NTC in Accra on Friday.

He said, ?We will get the kind of media we want not by speeches and admonition, but by investing, retraining and retooling the media, and providing the right atmosphere for it to operate in.? He said it was unfortunate that the cost of basic media industry inputs kept rising, as this was fueling an increase in production costs and in the prices of media products.

Recognizing that the ordinary citizen?s decisions were informed by the output of the media, Mr Pratt stressed the need to raise the priority of the media so as to make it the bulwark of the nation?s democracy.

?Every day, the media cries out for tax concessions on newsprint and ink. When we cry out, we do so for our country and not for ourselves,? he said. ?If the delivery of information is made cheaper, it will ensure that people are better informed and so do not make decisions out of ignorance. ?The person telling the story is important. We need to be encouraged and empowered to tell the story right,? he stressed.