Don’t accuse gov’t of interference if media owners are forced to pay journalists well – Pius

Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority (NYA) Pius Hadzide has observed that some Ghanaian journalists are not properly remunerated by their media owners.

This, he said, is a problem that must be tackled.

Sharing his thoughts on the welfare of journalists in Ghana while speaking on the New Day show on TV3 with host Johnnie Hughes on Wednesday January 12, he said the government should not be blamed for interference if media owners are forced to pay their workers well.

He recounted that the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo suffered backlash when the National Communications Authority (NCA) enforced the frequency reauthorization against defaulting media houses.

To that end, he said, persons should not unfairly criticise the government again if the authorities act against media houses that do not remunerate their workers properly.

“We are in a country where when government wants to to even enforce the rules relative to the media, those are and ought to be fair players, we who observe the laws rightfully, for example in the renewal of the frequency authorization Media General obeyed the laws strictly , when authorization was about expiring they made application and they got a renewal for the authorization.

“Surprisingly, we who obeyed the law and worked, when others are being told to obey the law we say no, don’t do that, it amounts to something else.

“Now, we are back to the same point, talking about payments and compensation for media practitioners. I hope and pray that when the time comes and government takes the the bull by the horn and insists that media owners should not just be driven by profits they may make from advertising, but that they should apply some of those monies to paying properly the people who do the real job, nobody will come around to accuse us again of all the negativities that came when we tried to the rules.”

Deputy National Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Edem Agbana had asked the leadership of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to resolve issues with the condition of service for journalists.

He noted that the welfare of journalists in Ghana at the moment is not the best, a situation he believes exposes some media practitioners to inducement.

He was contributing to a discussion on the New Day show with Johnnie Hughes on TV3 Tuesday January 11 regarding the National Media Capacity Enhancement programme, a programme designed by the government through the Ministry of Information to provide training for some 250 journalists annually across the country.

Edem Agbana raised issues against the government being the organizer of this capacity enhancement programme.

In his view, it has the propensity of compromising the journalists who are supposed to be neutral.

To him, the GJA should have been the organisers of such an event, not the government.

“The Ghana Journalists Association must sit up on the issues of welfare of journalists. We need to have a whole conversation about the welfare of journalists,” he said.

By Laud Nartey|editors.3news.com|Ghana