Be circumspect in your reporting - Ms Ohene

Ms Elizabeth Ohene, Minister of State for Media Relations on Tuesday urged media practitioners to be more careful in exercising their functions in order not to incur the displeasure of the public.

She said the power wielded by the media in disseminating information to the public could be easily abused and stressed the need for practitioners to guard against it.

"This power can be very sedative and when you wield that power without the maximum consideration, it can be dangerous for yourselves, the government, the public and as well as the country," Ms Ohene told the staff of GAMA Films Company, operators of TV3 during a visit.

The Ghana Films Industry was divested in 1996 to the GAMA Films Company, which set up the TV3 station.

The Minister said some media practitioners are abusing that power because they are not properly trained, well equipped or skilled to handle it.

She said the Ministry is willing to help protect this power, but "If people begin to feel that there is recklessness in the way we present our stories, there would be the temptation to call for government's control."

The government, she said, has a lot of political confidence in the private sector and urged those in that sector to gear their activities towards achieving success.

Ms Ohene expressed dissatisfaction about the conditions under which the archival materials are kept at the GAMA Films Company. "This is our history and there is a particular unease to what happened to these materials."

"As Ghanaians, we must be interested in our own culture and history" and urged the management of the company to address the issue properly to erase the feelings among the public that the company is not sensitive to the history of Ghana.

Mr. Kwasi Boakye, General Manager of Finance and Administration, said the archives are not part of the properties to be taken over by the company.

"We did not abandon the national assets. We need certain resources to maintain it as it should be."

Mr Boakye said they are doing everything at their level to protect the materials and urged the government to purchase the needed equipment to enable the company transfer the films to protect the tapes for future generations.

He also announced that GAMA has set up an in-house committee to address the issue.