BY MINISTER FOR INFORMATION, KOJO OPPONG NKRUMAH
NOVEMBER 7, 2023
Protocols
Good Morning
Let me start by thanking you all for making time to attend this very important meeting to review the Ministry’s Media Support Programs.
In 2018 when I was assigned to provide leadership at the Ministry of Information, I tasked the Research and Policy Units of the Ministry to provide data on the key issues in the Public Communication ecosystem, which required attention.
This was because, as you will see in a presentation to be made later today, the attention of the Ministry and the expectation of the public has always been that the Ministry of Information is the mouthpiece of Government only. Yes, there are times when the Ministry of Information is required to be the mouthpiece of Government though our core job is mainly to provide support to the other MDAs so they communicate the substantive policies and programs they are executing.
Our mandate as a Ministry however goes beyond these. It includes supporting the public communications ecosystem in the country. To effectively support the ecosystem it was important to start with baseline data on the key issues that needed attention.
My attention was drawn to the following;
the safety of journalists, the capacity of persons practicing journalism, and ensuring that egregious media content was contained on our airwaves.
Subsequent to this, the Ministry invited stakeholders to a validation forum in early 2019 at the Alisa Hotel to discuss draft programs designed to respond to some of these issues.
The feedback from the forum, culminated in the final development of our Media Support Programs which were signed off and advertised in the first-ever programs handbook of the Ministry, issued to staff in 2019. They comprised-
- Coordinated Mechanism for the Safety of Journalists
- Media Capacity Enhancement Program
- Collaboration with stakeholders to contain egregious media content
Earlier this year, the Ministry added
- Campaigns to combat misinformation and disinformation
- Industry support through Global Partnerships
This now makes 5 programs that today’s Ministry of Information is executing in support of Ghana’s media ecosystem.
Ladies and gentlemen, it has been three years since we commenced our media support programs and a few salient questions are ripe for answers at this time.
- How well are our media support programs known by the stakeholders, the country, and our partners?
- What has been the result of implementation so far?
- What are the key challenges that these programs face and how can we resolve them?
- How much support are we garnering for these programs from our stakeholders and partners?
- How do we institutionalise these programs to outlive the current executive administration?
It is to help us shape these programs, that we have invited you all here today. Our expectation is that your views, your input and feedback will be helpful as we prepare for the continuation of these programs in 2024. And we are doing this transparently so that even those beyond the walls of this auditorium can follow and contribute to our discussions.
I encourage you all to contribute freely to the review with the objective of making our media support programs better and more sustainable.
The public communications sector which includes the Media is a major sector in our democratic and governance exercise. Unfortunately, while we in this sector like to focus on other sectors, we hardly make time to examine, collaborate on and push the agenda of our sector forward.
My administration at the Ministry of Information is keen and committed to institutionalising the media support programs and in particular the collaboration with stakeholders in the sector to shape and execute them. But we will require the regular interest, participation and collaboration of sector stakeholders to achieve this.
Let me repeat the Ministry’s ethos on this subject that; no single individual or group in this sector can on their own tackle the issues we face. Our collaboration is what will lead to success.
I look forward to your continued partnership in supporting this sector to overcome the challenges and to leapfrog in taking advantage of the opportunities available to us.
I thank you for your attention.
