By Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo
A member of the National Media Commission (NMC), Professor Africanus Diedong, has called for a collaboration between the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and the NMC to set up Regional Media Advisory Committees (RMACs).
He said committees will liaise or serve as satellite centres for the NMC to further engage its stakeholders to help improve media practice in the country.
Professor Diedong, who is also the Dean of the Faculty of Integrated Development SStudies (FIDS) of the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) made the call when he interacted with the Management of GBC Radio Upper West in Wa.
Professor Africanus Diedong stated that the philosophy behind the establishment of the NMC is not to control the media but to promote media freedoms and uphold media accountability that ensures that media practitioners do their work with high sense of commitment to the public good.
He indicated that the Complaints and Settlement Committee of the Commission is concerned about the below-bar performance of some media outlets in the wake of “citizen journalism”.
Prof. Diedong stressed the need for professionals to serve as filters in terms of promoting developmental journalism.
“Citizen Journalists are not well educated in terms of media professionalism, and so they can send stories to you, they can write, somebody who is very fluent in the language, but when it comes to communication that borders on the public good and how this can be disseminated to promote development, to promote the national good, it is the professional who can sort of filter whatever goes through the media system. The professional has the role to filter, so that it is knowledge that is beneficial, it is information that is important,” Professor Diedong averred.
He equally underscored the necessity for the management of media houses to put in place workforce plans to groom their staff to enable them to stand the challenges of pluralistic media regime in order to deliver the goods.
The Upper West Regional Director of GBC, Christopher Asiedu, emphasised that the Corporation has performed and will continue to perform creditably in respect of its public service mandate.
He said: “Ever since we were incorporated by the National Liberation Council Decree 226 of 1968 to provide public service broadcast, I think we have lived up to expectations, supporting the state to project the developmental agenda, ensuring unity, diversity, and projecting the cultural and developmental aspirations of the people. That is the more reason why even Radio Upper West was established.”
Mr Asiedu assured Professor Diedong that the GBC will collaborate with the NMC at the regional as well as national levels to promote quality journalism.
The Upper West Regional Chairman of GJA, Sualah Abdul-wahab, equally pledged that the Association will work hand-in-hand with NMC to address the concerns of the media in the Region.
He, however, expressed concern about the inability of the media in the Upper West to get clarifications from the local Police Administration on issues that emanate from the Region.
Other issues that came up during the interaction included Digital Audio Broadcast and Radio Stations transmitting beyond certain radius in contravention of their licence.
Some of the personalities at the meeting were the Head of Technical, Sylvester Osei; the Regional Accountant, Hamza Mohammed; the Regional Internal Auditor, Michael Wadah; the Regional Marketing Officer, Clement Kanjatanga; and the Head of News, E. Mensah-Abludo.
