Sunyani (B/A) Sept. 27, GNA - Professor Kwame Karikari, Executive Director of Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) on Saturday urged the Ghanaian media to value the democratic achievements of the country and take it as an opportunity to practice quality Journalism. This, he said would ensure better improvement of professional standards for the holistic development of the nation. Prof. Karikari said the press freedom and liberty being enjoyed as part of the democratic achievements should not be taken for granted, through the practice of unethical and irresponsible journalism. He was speaking in Sunyani at a day's meeting with the media on the concept of the Ghana Media Standards Improvement Project (GMSIP). It was attended by more than 40 Radio Station managers from the Northern Sector.

Prof. Karikari said although the media had done a meaningful job in entrenching democratic values and tenets in the country, it was also eroding those gains because of poor professional practices and standards.

"The media has conceived and delivered democracy, yet the same media is aborting and strangling that baby democracy," he stressed. The meeting was the second in the series organised by the GMSIP, in collaboration with MFWA and the Ghana Journalists Association. It was sponsored by the Royal Danish Embassy in Accra. It was aimed among other things at educating the participants on the GSMIP general objective which is "to strengthen the capacity of the Ghanaian media to be more effective in their work to sustain democracy and advance freedom of expression".

Prof. Karikari recounted the history of radio broadcast journalism in the country and lauded the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation established in 1935, as the premier and only national broadcaster for public interest services.

He said the corporation was doing well in spite of the political control and interventions by successive governments as well as the socio-economic difficulties it had faced over the years. Ms Ajoa Yeboah-Afari GMSIP Co-ordinator remarked that radio broadcasting was the heart of journalism and central to the development of any country and therefore asked the managers to take advantage of the meeting to make contacts with their colleagues to ensure operational efficiency in their operations. Mr Eric Opoku, Brong Ahafo Deputy Regional Minister, in a keynote read on his behalf commended the GMSIP for organising the meeting because the nation was witnessing an era that the media had thrown caution to the wind and thus practicing journalism against the ethics of the profession.

He therefore called on the GJA "to be up and doing and bring to book the fake journalists we have in the country today". Mr William Orleans Oduro, Regional President of the Ghana Bar Association, who chaired the function, noted that although journalists had contributed immensely to deepen the democratic credentials of the country, they were now creating problems for the growth and sustenance of the profession, as a result of mediocrity and unethical practices. Mr.Oduro therefore appealed to media practitioners to be circumspect in their reportage since it was difficult to reverse what went out through the print or the airwaves.