Don’t boycott any political party – Affail Monney tells media houses

Roland Affail Monney, the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has advised the media not to boycott any political party that offends media men and women.

According to him, the political parties are notable sources of news as well as building blocks of democracy so the media and the political parties cannot do without each other.

“It is not within the bounds of possibility or it doesn’t make sense for the media to boycott any offending party. Because political parties are vital sources of news, they are also the building blocks of democracy so we can’t do without political parties,” he said at a news conference in Accra on Thursday, 17 December.

“All politicians have the same mother, behaviourally, they are the same. We are immune to the proneness of winning parties to commend the media, and the fondness of the losing parties to lambast the media,” Affail Monney added.

The GJA President further indicated that, in 2008, the incumbent NPP were assaulting journalists for projecting election outcomes for the NDC and many media houses decided to boycott the NPP, but the GJA intervened.

Roland Affial Monney then appealed to losing political parties not to be attacking the media for they are only doing their professional job by reporting on the December 7 elections.

“The election was just to settle the leadership question, and after that, another opportunity will come in 2024. We’re used to the behaviour or misbehaviour of such political parties and this is the cross we have decided to carry and we believe as we appeal to them, journalists will maintain their focus and do what is professionally right at all times,” he stressed.

Some journalists including reporters from GhanaWeb were attacked by some angry supporters of the opposition NDC for reporting on the just-ended 2020 elections.

Due to this attack, the management of GhanaWeb took a decision not to cover any outdoor programmes of the NDC until the issue is resolved and the affected parties apologised to because the safety of journalists on such duties cannot be guaranteed.