GJA President extols media freedom in Ghana

Accra, April. 21, GNA- Mr Ransford Tetteh, President of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), on Saturday, said press freedom has been entrenched in the country and that the Ghanaian media would fight any government that tried to bring back the criminal libel law.

He told a group of West African Journalist attending a workshop on conflict transformation in Accra that there had been times when editors had been manipulated and some even lost their jobs because they did not give in to the dictates of the government of the day" he revealed. According to Mr Tetteh, several measures had been put in place by the constitution to ensure that the media remained independent and devoid of control, to guarantee freedom of the media.

Among those measures, he mentioned was the establishment of the National Media Commission (NMC), whose membership cuts across religion, professional and civil society groupings, which were independent bodies. "But what we are focusing on as a Journalist Organization now, is the right for the NMC to have that oversight responsibility in the granting of operating licence to Television and radio stations to be able to regulate their programmes" he added.

He therefore urged the other countries whose media freedom was not the best as a result of conflicts, to keep on pilling pressure on their governments to realize the need for the criminal libel laws to be repealed.

Mr Tetteh however noted that, despite the achievements, ethical standard of journalism in the country was not the best, citing the demand for money after covering events as a major challenge to professional conduct.

He made it clear that the GJA was not against receiving of gifts but "to harass event organizers and demand money from them is an affront to professional journalism and urged all editors to help curb that trend.

According to Mr Tetteh, contrary to perceptions that it was unpaid reporters who depended on such moneys, investigations have shown that reporters from credible media houses also fall foul of that ethic. The two-week workshop is being organized by Inwent of the International Institute of Journalism (IIJ) in Berlin, for six countries in the West African sub-region.