Media must help keep political parties in check - Zayaa Yeebo

Mr Zayaa Yeebo, Editor in Chief of the Public Agenda Newspaper has called on the media to help deepen democratic development by sanitising the political space.

He observed that political entities were threatening violence ahead of the 2020 general elections, and that it was the responsibility of the media to help keep them in check.

This the media can do by being circumspect and not being a conveyor belt, which carries everything put on it. The media should be able to sieve the news from the hate speeches and give reportage that promote peace.

Mr Yeebo said this when he chaired a public forum on the state of the nation organised by the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), a political movement, in Ho on Saturday.

“Political parties are beating war drums, and the media must keep them in check,” he said, calling for proper examination and communication of issues towards ensuring that the Nation’s democratic governance system did not fall to political interests.

Mr Yeebo said the media remained on the frontlines of attitudinal change, which was key to democratic development, and must therefore help maintain a well-informed, and patriotic public.

Professor Kojo Aidoo, Acting Chairman of the Movement, said citizens must discover the Nation’s mission and deliver it, noting that rising unemployment and national debt stock, bred dissentions including secessionist movements.

He said a “new revolutionary, radical and redemptive movement” was therefore needed, and that the left must help provide a credible alternative that would challenge the status quo, which he alleged had been defined by an ever widening social divide.

Prof. Aidoo said the people must be the means to democratic governance, and must therefore undertake self-assessment, and join hands with the PDM, which he claimed believed in popular democracy and the democratisation of development.

“We are moving, and as we move, we want every part of Ghana to move. It’s a herculean task, which requires years of struggle, which must continue till we meet an end of the crime, dependency and strife that Ghanaians have been living through since 1957,” he said.

The Chairman called for strong civil societies, and said all must help usher in an era where institutions would work to enhance the development of the citizenry.

He also charged the youth to empower themselves to take over the world, and advised them to take advantage of agriculture and skills development.

“The world is looking up to Africa as resources are getting spent up, therefore we all must begin self-reflection to understand the process by which we arrived here today, and see how we can move out of it,” the Chairman said.

The PDM, which was launched in October 2018 as a “mass revolutionary movement” has promised the establishment of a new political order; one that would guarantee social justice, and patriotism.

It seeks to "redeem the Nation" from what it describes as “neo-colonial exploitation”, and has pledged to ensure Ghana enjoyed total sovereignty.

The Movement also promises to develop a “pan African orientation” that would help realise continental collaboration and unification.