Define who is journalist-Minister urges GJA

THE Minister of Information, Mr John Akolgo Tia, has tasked the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to go back to the old-school definition of who a journalist is.
He said since professional associations like the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) and the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) would not allow anybody without the requisite training to be recognised as one of them, journalists should also protect the integrity of the profession by redefining who actually was a journalist.
At a meeting with the management and union executive of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) in Accra yesterday, Mr Tia, who is a journalist himself, said it was important the GJA found ways to prevent the situation where anybody who could write or use a microphone to speak was referred to as a journalist.
The Information Minister said he would discuss with the GJA as to how to solve the problem and to bring sanctity into the practice of journalism in the country.
Touching on other issues confronting media practice currently, Mr Tia called for balance reportage so as to fairly serve all manner of persons within the society.
He observed that the Ghanaian media landscape currently was full of politics to the detriment of other development issues and urged both writers and presenters to do well by touching on other issues which bordered on the development of the Ghanaian society.
He reminded the media to always take into consideration the fundamentals of journalism, which border on the need to educate, to inform and to entertain, saying that some media entities usually settled on one aspect, especially the entertainment aspect, and ignore the other two.
He noted that media practice in Ghana at the moment had become highly competitive but went on to state that in spite of the competition, it was important each practitioner served as guide to the other for the benefit of society.
The minister took time to speak against unnecessary sensationalism, advising that information had become so vital to the world today that anybody who had the opportunity to have something to do with dissemination of information should be circumspect.
“Information has become one of the key factors of good governance and must be seen as such,” he stressed.
Mr Tia, who had already paid familiarisation visits to other state media houses, commended the GCGL for doing so well and urged other media organisations to learn from the company.
He also took the opportunity to commend the management staff for having good relationship with the workers’ union and pointed out that unlike other places that he visited, executives of the GCGL local union were present at the meeting without any prompting by him.
The Managing Director of the GCGL, Mr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, welcomed the minister on behalf of the company and took the opportunity to inform him about the 60th Anniversary celebration of the company, which falls due this year.
He acknowledged the fact that the media business in Ghana had become highly competitive since 1992 but was convinced that good work would always prevail.
As part of the visit, Mr Tia, who was in the company of staff of his ministry and a number of journalists, was taken round the various sections of the GCGL, where he interacted with some of the workers.