President Kufuor urges media practitioners to shift paradigm

Accra, Aug. 23, GNA - The limited, political agenda of uprooting dictatorship and holding politicians accountable to the electorate, to a large extent, has been completed successfully.

The new paradigm should be a focus on society's role in governance, President John Agyekum Kufuor stated at the 10th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Awards/Dinner Night in Accra on Saturday.

President Kufuor whose speech was read on his behalf urged media practitioners to design a new method of motivating society to change its mindset from government-cantered approach to national development, to a society-cantered approach.

The media should lead society to re-discover and re-assert itself, to re-define existing societal vision, goals and standards or formulate new ones, so that, governance would become an all-inclusive exercise, to the benefit of all.

In pursuit of this, President Kufuor urged media practitioners to upgrade their standard, acquire new skills and competence, whilst media establishments should also consider re-packaging existing products or introduce new ones to meet the new challenge.

He also suggested the development of partnership and collaborative arrangements between GJA, Media Houses and Training Institutions both locally and foreign agencies and bodies to pool resources, share ideas and create the synergy need for the challenging task.

President Kufuor used the occasion to congratulate as well as pay glowing tribute to Mrs Gifty Affenyi-Dadzie the outgoing GJA President for her contribution to the development of responsible journalism in the country.

Mrs Affenyi-Dadzie reiterated the call by the Association, Governance Institutions and other credible civil society organisations to the Government for the passage of the Freedom of Information Act. "Once again, the GJA wishes to appeal to the NPP Government which has so far demonstrated a commitment to the growth of the Ghanaian media and democratic tenets, to do all within its means to give Ghanaians an appropriate Freedom of Information Act, before President Kufuor's first term of Office comes to an end.

"A Freedom of Information Act under this Government will be consistent with the government's generally acknowledged media friendly image," She emphasis.

The GJA President said the Act is one essential requirement that would enable the media and other segments of society hold elected and appointed officials accountable and concretise our sovereignty as a people and also necessary for the attainment of a higher level of transparency in the conduct of government business.

Mr Albert Sallia Fawundu, UNDP Resident Representative in a remark read on his behalf lauded the media's unflinching support to the nation's development agenda with a high degree of success. He called for encouragement of the media to continue to serve the nation's supreme interest in this global village of interlocking yet often divergent interests.

Mr Fawundu said Ghana has one of the liveliest, most buoyant and one of the freest mass media in the West African sub-region.

"In a developing country of about 20 million inhabitants with a fledging democracy cruising towards a blossoming multi-party dispensation, ... the development process, the nation-wide media service together with the creditable performance of the media practitioners, which we salute are bound to improve, ideally in a linear progression."

The Association ignored popular protest by some media organisations over the selection and awarding of the Best Journalists of the Year and conferred the prestigious title on Mr Komla Dumor, formerly of Joy FM. Last Thursday, Journalists from Ghana News Agency (GNA), Graphic Communications Group, Ghanaian Times, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Choice FM, The Evening News and the Concern Formally Trained Journalists Movement, vehemently protested against the purported selection of Mr Dumor, for the Award.