Media, lawyers urged to ensure rights of Ghanaians protected
Dr Abdul Bassit Aziz Bamba, Lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana has urged the media and lawyers to ensure that the rights and freedoms of all Ghanaians are respected and protected.
He said as professionals they should always abide by their code of ethics and conducts in executing their responsibilities, which obliges them to be honest, fair, candid and objective.
Dr Bamba said as practitioners they should be able to manage the conditions that give rise to threats to peace and security.
Dr Bamba made the observation at the Annual Iftar Lectures on the “Role of the legal and media practitioner in managing threats to peace and security”, under the theme; ‘Peace for Choice’, organized by the Coalition of Muslims Organizations, Ghana (COMOG), in Accra.
He said lawyers and media practitioners were expected to be advocates of justice and defend religious rights and freedoms by word of mouth, in writing or by legal action, when necessary.
He said media practitioners are advocates of justice and serves as the mouthpiece of people with legitimate grievances but without a voice, power and skills to project their concerns.
Dr Bamba said it’s important to talk about peace within ourselves and that Muslims had largely lived in peace with their neighbours since colonial times, adding that, each Ghanaian has the duty to promote peace and security in the country.
Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, Deputy Minister of Energy and Member of Parliament for Tamale Central said Imams and Muslim opinion leaders had a greater role to play in the promotion of peace and security in our societies.
He said the task was not only on lawyers and media practitioners, but also the responsibility of everyone, including Muslims to defend the peace and security of the nation.
Alhaji Adam Mahama, Acting National President of COMOG said Ghana had been spared of the civil strife’s that had spread over all Africa and must continue preaching peace, saying that, peace and security was the responsibility of all Ghanaians.
He said COMOG has developed an initiative dubbed “National Peace Initiative” which would be launched soon to promote peace and security in the country.
The Chairman of the occasion, Dr Fuseini Hudu, a lecturer at the Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana, said Peace was an invaluable asset that could not quantified in monetary terms.
He said to succeed as a nation, there was the need to adopt the “right attitude and also ensure that peace was maintained to enable us to achieve the targets and set goals of our nation.”
Source: GNA