The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has urged development partners and the private sector to support two programmes introduced to enhance capacity building and safety of the media practitioners in the country.
He said technical and financial backing for the Media Capacity Enhancement Programme (MCEP) and the Co-ordinated Mechanism for the Safety of Journalists (CMSJ), would position the media well to execute its mandate effectively.
Speaking at a Development Partners’ Conference on Media Support Programmes in Accra yesterday, he said; “The Ghanaian media occupies a very significant place in our national life. It has the potential to multiply our best efforts. It also has the potential to take us down south.
“It must not be left on its own to prod through the dark, hoping to find its way to the very top. It must be assisted and supported with the best of our technical and financial muscle to make excellence of global repute, the norm and not the exception.”
Organised by the Ministry, the conference was attended by some members of the diplomatic community, including United States, Norway, United Nations, National Media Commission (NMC), Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Media Foundation for West Africa, Civil Society Organisations, Managers and Editors of media houses and others to rally support towards the advancement of the media landscape.
The MCEP developed in 2019 is to create a framework for academia and practitioners to develop and execute training programmes for practicing producers, journalists and editors to enhance their capacity to deliver on their mandate, while the office of CMSJ inaugurated in May, this year, is to promote and ensure the maintenance of free robust environment for journalism.
The two initiatives require GH¢3.4 million annually for their implementation.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah said the partnership would help in ensuring that the limited impact of the two programmes and their true potential was widened to reach all the regions of Ghana.
“We know that resources, post COVID-19, are constrained the world over, but we also know that now is the time to make the necessary investments in our fourth estate so it can play its full role in stimulating quicker recovery and strengthening our democracy”, he said.
According to Mr Oppong Nkrumah, despite the relative media freedom in Ghana, journalists faced challenges including poor remuneration, inadequate resources, and lack of training which resulted in misreportage and defamation and in response, lawsuits and public call outs , hence the need to improve the quality of journalism.
He said although support to the media started years ago with interventions state and non-state initiatives such as training and other support from development partners, more needed to be done to achieve the desired results.
Chairman of the NMC, Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafo, said the safety of journalists should be protected at all times even if they failed to live up to their responsibility because they were legal means to seek redress for any grievances, while capacity building was relevant to help journalists to tell more impactful stories, for instance, analyse the COVID-19 data to tell its actual impact on human activities and progress.
He said the Ministry had not usurped the powers of NMC in leading the two programmes stating that “while we (NMC) will not surrender our independence, we will not shun any collaboration that will be functionally beneficial to the interest of journalism in the country.”
On his part, the GJA President, Roland Affail Monney, urged the media to take advantage of the programmes and other support to better their lot and serve the public better.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
