By Laudia Sawer
Accra, Aug. 29, GNA-Mr. Albert Futupkor, the Northern Regional Secretary of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), has revealed that political activists of the two major political parties in Ghana are using the media to gain ground in the northern part of the country.
Mr Futukpor, who is also an editor at the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said the three regions in the northern part of the country had become a bed of political activities and their associated media challenges.
He disclosed this during a panel discussion at the learning, closeout, and stakeholder conference organised by the GJA for the GJA/US Embassy Ghana Election 2024 Project dubbed “Journalists for Peaceful Discourse.”
It was on the theme “Promoting Peaceful Journalistic Media Platforms Ahead of Elections 2024.”
He said because the candidates for both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) hailed from the area, both did not want to be seen as being weak in their home regions and therefore using the media landscape to promote their activities, with their activists using unethical media practices.
He revealed that in the past two months, about five attacks on journalists and media personnel have been recorded in the area, with the GJA receiving accusations from both parties of their opponents using media outlets in the area to malign them.
Mr Futukpor said that in the past five years, there had been a rise in the number of radio stations in the region, indicating that the worrying aspect has to do with the non-professional background of those who mount such stations.
He revealed that some of the workers in the radio stations are friends and family members of the owners, with most of them not having appointment letters and remunerations, leading to them deploying ways and means to survive.
The GJA Northern Regional Secretary said to ensure the sanitation of the media landscape in the area, the GJA in the region, under the GJA/USA Embassy Ghana Election 2024 project, pays regular visits to the radio stations to impress on them to follow the ethics, reminding them not to incite the public, as well as to encourage owners and management to organise regular in-service training for their staff.
Mr George Amoh, the Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council, bemoaned the increased rate at which politicians were owning media houses in Ghana, a situation he said could affect the professional conduct of media practitioners as such media outlets are set up for the peculiar interest of their owners.
“It is important we get our media space right; we are not saying that they shouldn’t own media houses; what we are saying is that when they do, we should have a Standard of Operation (SOP); you shouldn’t just come in and do what will go with your personal interest instead of that of the state,” he stressed.
Mr. Kofi Yeboah, the GJA General Secretary, said owners of media houses must be published for the public to know those behind them, emphasising that such owners must recognise their responsibility to ensure the right thing is done.
He called for a national conversation on the ownership of media houses to ensure the highest professionalism in the media landscape in Ghana.
GNA