State media urged to empower correspondents

Wa, Jan 6, GNA - Mr. George Sarpong, Executive Secretary of the Media Commission, has appealed to managements of state owned media to consider empowering their correspondents in the regions with logistics to enhance their performance.

"I am surprised to see for myself that journalists are not only lacking vehicles to move to other districts, but also lack basic logistics such as computers and accessories that would propel them to work satisfactorily in the face of bad roads and poor transport system".

Mr. Sarpong said this on Saturday at Wa when he interacted with media personnel as part of his visit to the Upper West Region to familiarize himself with the environment under which the media are working and how they were partnering other organizations for national development. He said research conducted by his outfit showed that the Northern, Upper East, Upper West, Central, Volta and Eastern regions were among the least covered in terms of national news adding "the situation would spell doom for the country, if the trend would have to continue this way in the coming years".

The Executive Secretary said while Accra had about 66 percent coverage of national news, regions such as Northern, Volta, Eastern were covering about 2.5 percent with the Upper West and Upper East news representing less than one percent each.

Mr. Sarpong said he would liase with managements of media organizations to ensure that working in the regions would become attractive to all workers.

While some of the media personnel complained about delay in payment of allowances others complained of living in particular regions for so many years without transfers.