Engage with the media, Journalist urges AU

Mr Francis Asamoah Tuffuor, Chairman of the ECOWAS Community Development Programme Media Network, has called on the African Union to create more forums to help create awareness on its activities.

He said there seems to be a lot of apathy when there are discussions about African Union and ECOWAS in the various member countries and called on the AU to use the media to create more awareness about their activities

Mr Tuffuor, in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency, said he made the statement during a panel discussion on topic: “Media and the African Union (AU): how to bring the AU to citizens,” at the recent AU summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Mr Tuffuor said the ECOWAS Community Development Programme, sought to bridge the gap between policies and realities in relation to achieving the ECOWAS’s goal of free movement of goods and services within the sub region.

He called on the AU to train media personnel across the sub-region to enable them report on AU activities and programmes and enhance the citizen’s understanding of regional integration.

“In so doing, the media becomes the pivot, platform or the driving force where AU related issues could be effectively communicated to the masses.

Mr Tuffuor, who expressed worry about molestation, arrest, detention and killing of journalists in some countries such as South Sudan, Burundi, and Gabon and other countries, said such practices did not give the media, the ‘free room’ to operate.

“Such acts, draws countries backwards, breeds corruption and stifles the free operation of the media to expose wrong doings while inhibiting foreign investment,” he said.