Story: George Ernest Asare, Kumasi
THE Ashanti Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) is to assist the Ashanti Regional branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to establish a regional press centre in Kumasi as part of the council's efforts at facilitating the work of journalists to enable them to honour their obligations under the current democratic dispensation.
At the weekend, during an end-of-year press soiree organised by the RCC, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Emmanuel A. Owusu-Ansah, said the RCC was considering allocating an office for a press centre in Kumasi to the GJA. Mr Owusu-Ansah pointed out that allocation of a press centre to the association in this election year would not only enable it address the challenges affecting its practice, but would also facilitate things for its members to be able to educate the public in a more effective and efficient way, adding that it would also help them to appreciate the need to tolerate each other’s views.
This, he said, would go a long way to sustain the peace being enjoyed in the country, and further entrench our democratic dispensation.
The press soiree created a platform for Mr Owusu Ansah, his deputy, Mr Osei-Asibey Antwi, and many others to interact with the journalists in the region. It also offered the opportunity for the two sides to assess their strengths and weaknesses over the years, and the challenges that 2008 elections would pose.
The minister said like their counterparts in the Western Region who were provided with a press centre, journalists in the Ashanti Region deserved a better befitting press centre where they could constantly meet in a conducive atmosphere to take stock of their activities and chart a cause that would enhance their reportage.
He commended them for their tremendous contribution to marketing the investment potential of the region. This, he said, was having a positive impact as it was accelerating development and, therefore, urged them to sustain it.
According to the minister, journalism as a profession was very challenging, and in journalists' quest to educate, inform and entertain the public, they sometimes committed mistakes just as it happened to every human institution.
He said in assessing the work of the media towards a sustainable socio-economic development, the mistakes they committed were relatively trivial, and should not be used as a yardstick to condemn them.
He, therefore, urged journalists to focus on their core business of educating the public. He said this would help them appreciate the need to be tolerant, especially in this election year, so as to make the elections violence-free.
Mr Owush Ansah pointed out that elections were all about marketing candidates who wanted to hold public office, but said there was bound to be winners and losers, so campaigns and polling stations should not be used as launch pads for causing mayhem.
He explained that such negative practices could also undermine the gains chalked up over the years.
The minister said the absence of anything that would create confusion before, during and after the elections would make Ghanaians accept the results as credible and also cause the international community to appreciate the fact that Ghana had come of age so far as democracy was concerned.
"The challenges of 2007 should guide us to set a pace in 2008 as a way of deepening the democracy that would carry us through the years ahead," he stressed.
Mr Owusu-Ansah said his administration would also collaborate with the media in the region to initiate a monthly meet-the-press series as well as an open-day programme where the investment potential of the region would be showcased.
He also stressed that the initiative would make it possible for district chief executives in the region and the regional co-ordinating council (RCC) to interact frequently with the media and outline their programmes and policies as well as their achievements.
The acting Chairman of the Ashanti Regional branch of the GJA, Nana Yaw Osei, commended the RCC for recognising the contributions of the media towards the socio-economic development of the region.
He said over the years, the desire of the media to contribute more meaningful towards sustainable development was hampered by inadequate facilities, especially a press centre.
The acting regional chairman stated that while those in the Greater Accra and Western regions had well-equipped press centres, those in the Ashanti Region had no permanent place to meet regularly to take stock of their strengths and weaknesses to enable them to devise means of strengthening their capacity to meet the aspirations of the public.
He, therefore, appealed to the RCC to support the association to acquire a press centre to enhance their reportage.
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