GJA told to stand firm

Tamale, March 3, GNA - Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister has called on the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to stand firm and weed out charlatans from the profession to bring sanity into journalism in the country.

He said some people particularly school dropouts, were parading as journalists and indulging in unprofessional acts, which did not promote nation building but which could plunge the country into a state of anarchy.

The Minister was speaking at "Ghana@50" lectures organised by the GJA for journalists in the Northern Region and members of the public in Tamale on Wednesday The Tamale lecture was the last in a series on the theme: "Fifty years of Ghanaian Independence: Role of the journalists in a free society."

The GJA organised the lectures also to honour the memory of the late Mr. Samuel Ennin, Ashanti Regional chairman of the Association who was killed by unknown assailants in Kumasi last month. A German Capacity Building International "inwent", an NGO, funded the lectures, the first and second of which were held in Accra and Kumasi respectively.

Alhaji Idris said journalism was a noble profession and expressed regret that the advent of multiplicity of media organisations in the country had brought many unprofessional persons whose work was denting the image of journalism in Ghana, which needed to be addressed.

Alhaji Idris noted the volatile nature of the Northern Region was a volatile area and that some miscreants were using radio stations to foment trouble while some of them say things on air that they could not substantiate saying, "It is even embarrassing to contest the cases in court with some of them because they cannot pay for the fines."

The Minister, who earlier joined the Regional GJA to observe a minute's silence in the memory of the late Samuel Enin said, "Journalists are the mouth- peace of all in the world and it is wrong for any one to take their lives, no matter what differences they have." Dr Doris Yaa Dartey, a Communications Consultant called on journalists to persevere under the hard conditions and deliver well and objective services to the people while calling on them to update their knowledge to improve their work.

She said journalism was not all that free in a free society like that of Ghana and stressed the importance of objectivity so that the freedom of the press would be sustained saying, "If you loose it, it would be difficult to get it back."

Mr. Werner D'Inka, Senior Project Manager at the National Institute for Journalism in Germany said it was not necessary for the creation of a whole Ministry of Information and that it was not the duty of the media particularly in the Western World to project government development agenda.

He explained that if there was a vibrant government spokes person who would take the full responsibility of explaining government development agenda to the people, then the media would be free to operate.

He also condemned situations in Ghana where some journalism institutions ran six-month courses in journalism saying, "How on earth can some one use six months to learn and become a better journalist." Mr. Joe Thloloe, former chairman of the South African Editors forum advised Ghanaians to guard jealously the independence gained so that the country would not go back to neocolonialism.