GJA appeals to President to resource GNA
Mr Ransford Tetteh, President of the Ghana Journalist s Association on Friday appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to adequately resource the Ghana News Agency for them to recapture their primary role as the main news distributor.
He said the National Wire Service organization had over the years gone through financial turbulence which had brought its performance from excellent to the lowest ebb.
Mr Tetteh made this appeal when a section of media associations called on President John Dramani Mahama at the Flagstaff, Kanda.
The meeting, which was to enable the media to interact with the President and other officials at the Presidency, was attended by members of the Ghana Journalists Association, Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana and the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association.
The GJA President said the GNA was very relevant as they supplied news to both local and international media houses, adding that the recapitalization of GNA could chart a new path for revamping news generation in the country.
On the disbursement of GHC2million fund that government had allocated to the media in the national budget, Mr Tetteh appealed to President Mahama to constitute the Board of Trustees that would enable various media houses to access the fund to expand their activities.
He said much as the media need to collaborate effectively with government, they would not shirk their responsibilities as the watchdogs of society.
Mr Tetteh called on the media to play their roles responsibly by cross-checking their stories thoroughly before going public as the otherwise of it could land them in problems.
President Mahama said government would change the focus on the Ghana News Agency and make it more vibrant and effective like other international networks such as Reteurs.
He said government would make it more Information Technology compliant to become abreast with modern technology to recapture its past glories by consulting Reuters .
Mrs Gina Blay, President of the PRINPAG appealed to government to encourage the Ministries, Departments and Agencies to decentralize the distribution of advertisements to private media houses, rather than giving only state owned media houses.
Source: GNA