Journalists urged to make press freedom effective

Takoradi (Western Region), 13 Nov 1998 -- Mrs Esther Lily Nkansah, Western Regional minister, has urged journalists to ensure that freedom and responsibility of the press are reconciled to the benefit of civil society. She noted that the constitution guarantees media practitioners all the freedoms they need to enable them to make effective and productive contribution to national development. Mrs Nkansah was addressing a day's seminar on libel laws and contempt of court held for journalists in the Western region at Takoradi yesterday. It was organised by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES). The regional minister observed that access to information does not breach privacy rights recognised under the constitution. The problem is one of relations between the individual's desire of personal expression and the community's obligation to lay down certain common and controlled lines of social behaviour, she added. Mrs Gifty Affenyi-Dadzie, president of the GJA, said the law of criminal libel is not in consonance with the spirit and letter of the constitution which guarantees freedom of speech and maintains that editors should not be harassed physically, mentally or legally for their editorial opinions. She said persistent appeals to the conscience of journalists is better than regimentation or applying draconian laws at the expense of building democracy. Journalists must, therefore, play their part of the constitutional covenant that can make press freedom functional and abide by the code of ethics of their profession to ensure that they do not trample on the rights of others. Mrs Affenyi-Dadzie said journalists have a responsibility to engage themselves in a healthy debate over their work to purge bad nuts and impostors from their ranks with the assistance of the public. Mr Akwasi Afriyie-Badu, a representative of FES, said people must be educated about their rights and that the media must make the issue of press freedom a concern of the wider society. He urged the Ghana Bar Association (GBA ) to research into archaic laws in the statute books and help review and amend them.