First edition of GIJ dialogue series held

The first edition of the Ghana Institute of Journalism round table dialogue series, was on Tuesday  held in Accra.

 

Dubbed ; Media management, News Room tensions and Journalistic autonomy ; Service to the Public or the Bottom Line, the event sought to throw light on the need for journalists to be independent, as against situations that compromised this independence.

 

Mr Kabral Blay Amihere, a Former President of the Ghana Journalists Association, said journalists faced several challenges in performing their core duty of disseminating objective information and that many journalists battled in-between the interests of their employers and reporting on the true facts.

 

Mr. Amihere said there were currently four types of media, which he mentioned as the state owned media, journalist owned media, politician- owned media and chain media ownership.

 

He said although the 1992 constitution granted independence to the media; that was not entirely the case and said situations, such as the government being the main source of funding for the state media, made such independence not wholly possible.

 

The former GJA President said many journalist owned media outlets also depended on politicians for funding, making it difficult for them not to buy in with the interests of these politicians.

 

He said there was the need for journalists to be empowered through education on the rights guaranteed them by the country’s constitution and it was also necessary to find a means of ensuring, that only qualified journalists practised, to ensure quality news reportage in the country.

 

He said a media development fund to sponsor quality journalism without any external control would also go a long way to promote good journalism in the country.

 

Dr. Gilbert Tietaah, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Communication Studies-University of Ghana-Legon, said it was important to introduce regulatory measures that would ensure, that only people who were genuinely interested in media work practised journalism.

 

He said if journalists realised that journalism was more of a calling than just a means of making money, they would automatically promote and ensure high standards.

 

Source: GNA