Media alerted to the Whistle-blowers Act

Reporting acts of corruption through the media and by-passing anti-corruption state agencies, affronts the Whistleblowers Act 2006 (Act 720), Linda Ofori-Kwafo Executive Secretary, Ghana Anti - Corruption Coalition (GACC), has indicated.

Linda said journalists who did not follow the laid down procedures in the Act forfeit the appropriate protection and other benefits under that law.

She was speaking at a workshop for Journalists in Koforidua on Forest Law Enforcement and Governance organized by Friends of the Earth, Ghana and funded by the European Union.

Linda therefore advised journalists to study the Whistle-blowers Act carefully and act within its ambit.

Journalists like any citizen are required to furnish the appropriate anti- corruption state agencies with information on corruption and monitor the progress of such investigations to ensure that they were concluded and made public.

She said any action to the contrary ceases to be whistleblowing by the provisions in the whistle-blowers Act.

The Journalists however argued that if that be the position of the Whistle-blowers Act then there was no need enlisting Journalists to help expose corruption.

They were of the view that exposing acts of corruption through the media did not prevent the anti-corruption state agencies from investigating such allegations.