Media houses urged to provide logistics to their reporters

Dr. Anthony Bonna-Koomson, a media consultant, has appealed to media houses to provide logistics to their reporters during the December polls to insulate them from exposure to political favours and influences which could be counter-productive to journalism.

He was delivering a lecture in Koforidua on the theme “Using the Media as a tool for national integration and development in an election year”.

Dr. Bonna-Koomson said whiles journalists were being asked to be responsible, especially in election years, “media owners have an equal responsibility in the professional output of their journalists during elections”.

He said any condition that put journalists in challenging situations where they could be easily compromised by politicians who are eager for publicity, undermined professionalism and standards of journalism in the country.

Dr. Bona-Koomson, a former Board Chairman of the GNA, said transportation needs or transport allowances, over night and other allowances must be budgeted for and paid to journalists.

Dr. Bonna-Koomson, who is the head of the Department of Research at the Catholic University College, said it was imperative for media houses to equip their reporters during the elections to enable them to deliver fair and accurate reportage.

The lecture was part of activities marking the 10th anniversary of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) Sunrise FM in Koforidua.

He urged media houses to develop an internal quality control and assurance mechanism to monitor professional conduct during the elections, and what constituted bad conduct should be enshrined in all media houses for checks and balances.

Dr. Bonna-Koomson reminded GBC, the national broadcaster, of its onerous duty of developing balanced programmes aimed at national integration independent of government, party or other interest groups to ensure that people have access to information to make informed choices, which elections were all about.

The Eastern Regional Director of the GBC said the radio station since its establishment had developed programmes that are educative and development oriented, which earned the radio station awards.

He said the awards were given by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) as the best community radio in Child’s Right, the National Road Safety Commission as the best electronic media of Road Safety programmes and the radio station in agriculture in the region by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).

Ms Mavis Ama Frimpong, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Birim North, who chaired the function, stressed the need for the media to be interested in development issues other than politics, which had dominated most of the radio stations creating confusions among people.

She expressed the hope that the issues raised by the speaker would attract the attention of both state and private media stations to ensure that their journalists were in good conditions that would insulate them from any political interference in the line of their duties during the upcoming elections.**