The Minister for Information and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ofoase Ayirebi constituency, Honourable Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has challenged the Ghana News Agency (GNA) to establish a unique role for itself in the Ghanaian media landscape in order to remain relevant as government’s official news agency.
The Minister charged the agency to explore gaps in the media market place particularly, the underserved areas and employ strategies to capture these markets.
He added that economic, finance and business related news reporting is one of the few news areas in the Ghanaian media landscape that has not been fully exploited and implored the GNA to harness that potential.
Hon.Oppong Nkrumah made these remarks when he paid a working visit to the agency today since his reappointment as sector minister in the second term of the Nana Addo-led administration.
The Minister admonished the Agency to have a paradigm shift from what Former president Kwame Nkrumah envisioned for the agency when it was set up. Adding that at the time, the media landscape was not as pluralistic as it is today and therefore, could not continue doing the same things it did at the time.
“When Kwame Nkrumah envisioned GNA, the media landscape in Ghana and across the world was not like it is today. Today, we have pluralism in the industry, we have multiplicity of platforms across the country, over about 500 radio stations, over 100 television platforms, several online and print platforms. And so the old market place in which the services of a bulk distributer of news coming from a government’s news agency was so prominent. However, there is no longer that market place and this means that state owned media like the GNA has to adopt to the changes in the market and ensure that you maintain your relevance,” he emphasised.
Mindful of the budgetary and logistical constraints faced by the agency, the Minister reiterated his commitment to support the agency with logistics and also step up its budgetary allocation to improve its operations.
For his part, the Chairperson of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr. Yawa Boadu-Ayeboafo called for close collaboration between the NMC and the GNA stressing that working together was the only way both entities could improve the media space.
He called for ethical journalistic practice and admonished the GNA to be exhibit professionalism in news reporting.
The Board Chairperson, Professor Olivia Kwapong on her part acknowledged the significant increase in GNA’s budgetary allocation under the leadership of the current Minister but bemoaned the persisting logistical constraints faced by the agency.
While commending the minister for his support for the agency, she underscored the need for the agency to be retooled to become the bulk distributor of government’s news.
Also present at the tour was the Deputy Minister Nominee for Information, Ms. Fatimatu Abubakar, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communication, Hon.Cynthia Morrison and the Ranking Member, Hon. Alhassan Bashir Alhassan Fuseini. The rest included the Chairperson of the GNA Board, Prof. Olivia Kwapong, the General Manager of the GNA, Mr. Albert Kofi Owusu, and Chairperson of the NMC, Mr. Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafo and other members of the agency’s Board and some management members of the Ministry led by the Chief Director, Ms. Mamle Andrews.
Source: MOI (PR Unit)
