The Ministry of Information together with its development partners and private sector players have commenced efforts at providing support for the media in Ghana.
According to the Minister for Information, Honourable Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, just like other estates of the realm that genuinely deserved investments to improve its quality of output, so too does the media require relevant, timely, sustained investment to improve the quality of its output.
He made these remarks at the Development Partner’s Conference on Media Support Programmes today at the Alisa Hotel.
“Ghana has built for itself a robust culture of independent, free and fierce media practice since before independence. Despite the occasional sporadic incidents of media attacks and the complains about media misreportage by various segments of the society, Ghana’s media landscape continues to generally be the toast and envy of many globally. But media practice has significant challenges”, the Minister remarked.
He mentioned that though Ghana was now nearing the completion of research work to collate empirically the most recent challenges of the media, a cursory analysis already highlighted a number of challenges that must be urgently attended to.
Wikipedia’s narrative about media in Ghana among other things indicated that in spite of its relative freedom, the media in Ghana did face some challenges. Journalists in Ghana were often poorly paid, under resourced, and often lacked training. As a result, journalists in Ghana found themselves susceptible to many undesirable practices affecting the quality and altruistic nature of the work they are believed to be doing.
The Minister indicated that the establishment of the Media Capacity and Enhancement Programme (MCEP) as well as the Coordinated Mechanism for the Safety of Journalists (CMSJ) are some measures to address the myriad of challenges faced by the media in Ghana.
While the MCEP is designed to create a framework within which academia and practitioners developed and executed training programmes for practicing producers, journalists, and editors to enhance their capacity to deliver on their mandate, the CMSJ under the National Media Commission (NMC) is designed to continuously promote and ensure the maintenance of free robust environment for journalism practice.
This was in addition to the logistics and monetary support government had made available to the media as a support mechanism to help them in their day-to-day administration.
The conference was organised by the Ministry of Information and was attended by the United States Ambassador to Ghana, Stephanie Sanders Sullivan, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communications, Hon.Cynthia Morrison, Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr. Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo, President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA),Roland Affail Monney, Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) Sulemana Braimah, Rector of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), Prof. Kwamena Kwansah-Aidoo and Representatives from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) ,Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) and private sector players.
The Chairperson of the NMC, Mr. Ayeboafo underscored the relevance of coordination as sector players to provide the necessary platforms and personnel training in order for the media to thrive. He said that the country’s media needed support in order to become relevant actors in society.
On his part as President of GJA, Mr. Monney also called on journalists to take advantage of the available capacity enhancement programmes to improve on their skill set to become relevant in the media space.
Media Capacity Enhancement Programme
The Media Capacity Enhancement Programme was established to address the capacity challenges of the media to position it to play its role effectively as the fourth estate in our governance system. The programme is in line with one of the key strategic objectives of the Ministry to improve the media’s participation national development. When fully rolled out, the programme will see to the periodic training of journalists across the country in order to enhance their journalistic skills.
Coordinated Mechanism for the Safety of Journalists (CMSJ)
Through the CMSJ, the Ministry has collaborated with the NMC to inaugurate the Office of the Coordinated Mechanism on the Safety of Journalists in May 2021. Key to the operation of this office is the development of a framework for use by all stakeholders and an online application system to create a safe and conducive environment for the practice of journalism; prevent violence against journalists; protect journalists in danger; and prosecute perpetrators.
Source: MOI (PR Unit)
