Greater-Accra GJA calls on Information Minister

The leadership of the Greater-Accra branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Tuesday called on Fatimatu Abubakar, the Minister of Information.The three-man delegation led by Mr Charles Benoni Okine; the Greater-Accra Reginal Chairman, called on the Minister at her office in Accra.It appealed to her to assist journalists, particularly young ones with training programmes, and liaise with ministries and agencies to freely grant needed information to journalists amongst other issues.'We are proposing that with your good offices, when you are considering the things you want to do with us, you can look at crash programmes for new entrants who may be using UNIMAC …we believe it would help the landscape,' the Chairman said.On the issue of misinformation and disinformation, he pleaded with the Minister to, as a matter of urgency, liaise with other ministries and agencies to assist journalists access information with ease.He said, that would help curtail the spread of unverified information, which wa s the cause of misinformation and disinformation which he said, did not help national development.'We want to appeal to you to speak to the various ministries and the cabinet ministers who are in charge and some agencies of government that when journalists come to them, they should be willing to engage them even if the issues involved have no proof. They should be willing to tell them what the truth is,' he said.Mr Okine raised issues of presidential-media engagement, which had stopped after the COVID-19 pandemic and police brutalities against journalists, which called for attention and intervention of the Ministry.'Since COVID ended, we haven't really had any encounter with the President and that is also bringing some issues of misinformation because access to him has not been granted…,' he said.Mr Okine commended the Right to Information (RTI) Commission for helping journalists have access to required information and for the Minister's open-door policy.Madam Fatimatu Abubakar, responding to the re quests and petitions, said the Ministry was working on a series of virtual and in-person training programmes on topics such as media ethics and law.She said a committee had been constituted to run the programme.She expressed concern for the lack of participation, especially on the part of senior media practitioners and heads of media institutions in past training sessions.In her comments on police brutality and harassment of journalists, Madam Abubakar said the Ministry was giving it good attention.She advised journalists to adhere to best practices and respect boundaries in their line of duty.Source: Ghana News Agency