Journalists urged to help stop Northern conflicts

Wa, Aug. 19, GNA - Mr Sahanun Mogtari, Upper West Regional Minister on Tuesday urged journalists working in the three Northern Regions to play a leading role in efforts by various advocacy groups to resolve the spate of conflicts in the area.

He said the political twist being given to some of the conflicts like that of Dagbon by some interest groups, was too dangerous and called for a vigorous media campaign against this development. Mr Mogtari was speaking at his quarterly meeting with media personnel in the Upper West Region at Wa during which the newly elected Regional Executive of the Ghana Journalist Association was introduced to him.

The meeting afforded the Minister the opportunity to interact with them to get first hand information on their problems and share ideas in order to maintain a healthy relationship.

Mr Mogtari asked the media to educate parties in these conflicts on the need to avoid taking entrenched positions and rather accommodate each other's views to enable peace return to their communities.

He also touched on some issues that had become topics for daily discussion in the FM stations, saying, every objective minded Ghanaian knows that the government has performed creditably since it took office. Apart from construction of roads and clinics, he said 52 schools have been built in the Wa District of the region alone, within its two and half years in office.

These created jobs for carpenters, masons, painters, labourers and other artisans who were without work.

Mr Mogtari, therefore, expressed surprise when people said the government had not lived up to its campaign promise of creating jobs. He advised journalists to always endeavour to get to the sources of information to enable them to report authoritatively on them. "We are champions of free expression but you must ensure that you do not use that freedom to malign others without hearing their side of the story," he pointed out.

Mr George Benamba, the new Regional Chairman of the GJA thanked the Regional Minister for the support he gave to the old executive and hoped the same gesture would be extended to the new one.