Armed Forces expresses concern about newspaper publications

Accra, June 24, GNA - The Ghana Armed Forces on Thursday expressed concern about publications in some newspapers about the military and reminded journalists that they are obliged legally, ethically and morally to be circumspect about what they publish.

A statement issued in Accra by the Ghana Armed Forces Public Relations Directorate referred to publications in two private newspapers - Weekly Insight and Dispatch - and said they were not only published to impugn the integrity of military personnel but also to ridicule them to the point of provocation.

The statement said the Weekly Insight's headlines - Big trouble in the Army and Secret report on Army - following routine surveys the Armed Forces carried out to determine the needs and concerns of officers and men were "malicious and inflammatory".

The Dispatch's story with the headline "Military angry over its role as sanitary men" on assistance the Ghana Armed Forces gave Accra Metropolitan Assembly in improving sanitary conditions in the city sought to present to the public an obnoxious and contemptuous image of the Ghana Armed Forces, the statement said.

"Every phrase of the said story was carefully crafted to humiliate, provoke and incite the military with the calculated objective of achieving a destructive goal."

The statement said the publications in the two newspapers are not coincidental. "They are definitely calculated to cause disaffection among soldiers for the ultimate purpose of creating instability within the military and society at large."

The statement warned that the Ghana Armed Forces would not sit down for a few individuals to undermine its internal structures for discipline and cohesion or weaken morale of the rank and file.

"The Armed Forces therefore wishes to caution those politicians who think they can use their newspapers to throw the military into a state of confrontation that they may live to regret their actions and utterances."

It said journalists must be circumspect about the stories they publish and stressed that "such circumspection assumes absolute dimension when stories they publish pose a threat to peace and social stability."