The Ghana Journalists Association is set to launch a fund to address attacks on journalists.
This was revealed by the GJA President, Albert Dwumfour, when Executives of the Association paid a courtesy call on Mr. John Mahama, Former President of Ghana. Other members of the delegation were GJA Vice President, Linda Asante Agyei; General Secretary, Kofi Yeboah; Organising Secretary, Dominic Hlodzi; Treasurer, Audrey Dekalu; and Public Affairs Officer, Rebecca Ekpe.
“The International Day of Impunity of Crimes Against Journalists comes off on November 2. We want to celebrate this day by launching one of our key policies and programs, which is the Journalist Support Fund. In the past, we are all aware that perpetrators of such attacks did not face the full rigours of the law,” Mr. Dwumfour said on Friday, October 21, 2022.
In his view, the fund will put together a team that will deal with such perpetrators.
“People assault and attack journalists and go scot-free. We want to launch this fund to put together a team of legal brains which will include journalists who are lawyers and also get a permanent lawyer at the Press Centre who will tell and see to the logical conclusions of such cases so that, at least, it will serve as a deterrent for others to prevent and stop this menace of media attack.”
Mr. Dwumfour also outlined other initiatives and commitments.
“We have also started a massive renovation refurbishment at the Ghana International Press Centre (the media headquarters), which is one of our 100-day achievements. This new administration has already chalked up our 100 days in office, which fell on October 8, and on Tuesday, God willing, we will be addressing the media on our first 100-day achievement and use the opportunity to dedicate the refurbished Press Centre.”
“From there we are also looking at the regional blocks. We want to make the regions very vibrant and proactive and also independent because, in the decentralisation process, they are the leaders of the region and must be able to speak and address issues that confront the region, and we need your support in doing that. In the area of logistics, in fact, most of the regions do not even have a press centre. As we speak, the only region that has a press centre is the Volta region. The rest are either renting or perching with other media houses, and we want to solve this in our first term of office.”
Former President Mahama congratulated the team on their election as new Executives. He also commended the delegation for their initiatives.
