New Times Corporation Against Choice Of Journalist of the year

The New Times Corporation (NTC) chapter of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has protested against the choice of Komla Dumor, a former presenter of Joy FM, for the 2001/2002 Journalist of the Year Award.

A statement issued and signed by Dave Agbenu, general-secretary of the Chapter, said members of the Chapter considered a "slap in the face of Journalism" by those who chose and gave Dumor the award.

He said the Chapter had nothing against the personality or his ability to be best in his chosen field. "But we definitely find it difficult to understand why Dumor who had consistently denied on his radio talk show that he was a Journalist should be given the prestigious award.

The Chapter wants to put on record that the story for which Komla Dumor was chosen for the award was first carried on the front page of "The Evenning News" of 13 March 2001 with the headline: "SSNIT waste ?30bn on hotel", written by Francis Assuah, who is now the editor of "The Spectator".

The statement said the same paper on Wednesday and Thursday, 3 and 4 April 2001, a page for continuation of the story, this time with the headline: "The rot at SSNIT: which way? Written by Kofi Boakye.

"The fact that these stories were broken by "The Evening News" and later continuation by "The Ghanaian Times" before Dumor picked them up, show the error in giving him the award."

"These revelations in addition to Komla Dumor's own denial that he is a journalist give us cause to worry," it said. The statement said: "We regard the award as an insult to all hardworking professional journalist who had worked very hard in 2001/2002.