Journalists Against "Journalist of the Year"

Accra, Aug. 21, GNA - A cross-section of the Members of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) have vehemently protested against the purported selection of Mr Komla Dumor, formerly of JOY FM, for the Journalist of the Year Award, a GNA survey has revealed.

Views from Journalists at the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Graphic Communications Group, Ghanaian Times, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and Choice FM were overwhelmingly against the purported selection of Mr Dumor for the award.

A number of questions they asked included whether it takes a single story to become the best Journalist in this country.

"If indeed it takes just one story in a whole year to become the best Journalist then journalism is the cheapest profession that ever existed," one Senior Journalist at the GNA observed.

He said Journalists would not see anything wrong with Mr Dumor winning the best radio presenter's award but definitely not the best Journalist by any stretch of imagination.

The GNA Chapter argued that the Journalist of the Year Award should be reserved for thoroughbred Journalists, who have proved their mettle. "He should be an all round Journalist, whose stories stand out; must have a professional attitude with highest regard for ethics and objectivity. He must have been someone who can defend the substance and image of the profession at all levels.

"We all know that Mr Dumor has been ridiculing people he interviews and if this is the mark of the best Journalist, then God help Ghana. "In most of his interviews he picks on errors of grammar or facts of interviewees, plays them on air and invites comments from the public to further ridicule them."

The GNA Chapter wonders why such an attitude should be rewarded at a time when the Association is seeking to infuse ethical discipline. The Daily Graphic Chapter supported the view that Mr Dumor should have been given a special award for his work at JOY FM.

"The Journalist of the Year Award should be reserved for practising Journalists with mettle. It means that the idea of instilling professionalism and making the right people to be in the profession is a sham.

"This is wrong and we will not tolerate it in anyway. We will then go ahead to boycott the forthcoming Awards Night on Saturday," the Ghanaian Times Chapter member stated.

"We will have to go to court if this goes ahead. We believe that the fact that a precedence was set the last time around does not mean that it should be perpetuated," they said.

Members at the GBC said Journalists deserve better than this, adding: "it is not right to just have someone who comes over, pays up and is instantly declared a Journalist. "The awards committee should listen to us and change their decision," a member stressed.

A Journalist at Choice FM expressed his indignation about the selection and called for an immediate review.

He said, "If there is no one who merits the award, it should be passed over."