Bolgatanga, Jan 24 GNA- Mr. Mark Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minist= er, has appealed to media personnel in the Region to desist from reporting on=

issues that would adversely affect the resolution of the Bawku conflict. "Let us be circumspect in our reportage and to go extra mile to orientate the people in Bawku on the need for peaceful co-existence inste= ad of inflaming passions."

The Minister who made the appeal during a soir=E9e organized for the=

media in the Region over the weekend lamented that instead of the Media playing its social responsibility role to complement Government and other=

stakeholders' efforts in finding and maintaining peace in Bawku, some of them were rather reporting irresponsibly with careless abandon. He urged the journalists to read wide and study the country's constitution and the code of ethics of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) so that they could discharge their duties effectively. "A Journalist who understands aspects of the country's constitution relevant to journalism practice is likely to practice in a decent and professional manner and will most of time escape social and legal traps". Mr. Woyongo explained that the expunging of the criminal libel law f= rom the status books was meant to enhance the performance of Journalists and not to degenerate the professional standards that have been achieved with the=

sweat of the founding members of the profession and urged the National Me= dia Commission and the top brass of the GJA not to hesitate to bring defaulti= ng members to book. The Minister, however, commended the Media in the Region for their h= ard work and said it had helped to project the Region in several ways. He mentioned in particular coverage given to the President, Professo= r Evans Atta Mills and Vice President John Dramani Mahama as well as other international assignments and said it showed how dear development of the region was to media personnel working in the region.

The Minister said the Region would be celebrating its 50th anniversa= ry in September this year and urged the Media to advertise the region throu= gh their reportage to enable stakeholders including the Government, bilatera= l and multilateral donor investors, the region's citizens within and withou= t to contribute to the celebration Mr. Eric Kwadjo Amoh, Upper East Region Chairman of the GJA, caution= ed Journalists that the GJA would not hesitate to deal with any journalist including broadcasters who violated the ethics of the Association. He appealed to Journalists to move to the rural areas in the Region to do more rural reporting, saying there were more issues out there which needed to be reported on. 24 Jan.10