President John Dramani Mahama has condemned the lack of professionalism being exhibited by some of the country’s media, and charged the National Media Commission to step in to check it.
Although he said the media has made gains over the years, there are still some excesses by both the print and broadcast media which he described as ” over-zealousness”
“A lot of us complain about the lack of professionalism especially on the airwaves…with programmes where people are able to, in an unregulated manner, call in to just vilify or defame other people,” President Mahama observed when the outgoing members of the NMC called on him at the Presidency
“We have come a long way though but there are still gaps especially in the print media too and the audio visual. Often when an accident has occurred or there is some gory incident that has occurred, the way the pictures are just splashed across the newspapers and on our TV screens is not the best.
“There are children who read these newspapers, there are children who watch these news stories on TV and to get them used to seeing human beings in that state makes them accept it as normal. And I don’t think that is a good thing. That must be an area that we look at to see how we can curb the over-zealousness of some of the media in this particular way,” he stated
President Mahama said notwithstanding the resource constraint of the Commission, it has evolved over the years. He assured the Commission of the necessary resources to enable it do its work, particularly in regulating the broadcasting sector to make it one that Ghanaians can be proud of.
“I want to congratulate you for a very successful term as chair and your members for the good work you’ve done… We’ll continue to push to make sure that the commission is able to live up to the mandate that the constitution has given it” the President assured.
He members of the Commission who will take over from the outgoing members will have the pursue getting a broadcasting bill in place, which he said has been long overdue.
Meanwhile, President Mahama said it will donate a Toyota mini bus and Pick-up vehicle to the Commission to aid it in its work, in addition to a permanent office being provided to the Commission by the government.
The Chairman of the Commission Ambassador Kabral Blay Amihere, who led the outgoing NMC members, commended President Mahama for his support and positive collaboration with the Commission.
He referred to the process of appointing CEOs and Boards for the State Owned Media, noting that “in the past, there was a lot of tension, mistrust around the process but with you in charge, we have created a better atmosphere for the constitutional process to take place.”
The Commission also thanked the President for his personal assistance with a permanent office building.
By tv3network.com|Ghana
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