GNA stands by its story “IEA slams NPP for abuse of incumbency”

Accra, Aug. 16, GNA – The Editorial Conference, the highest authority on editorial matters in Ghana News Agency (GNA), stands by its story: “IEA slams NPP for abuse of incumbency in Election 2008” filed on Sunday, August 14, 2011.

The Conference came to this conclusion after thorough investigations it carried out established that the story was sourced from the official website of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

It expressed shock and dismay that a reputable institution of IEA’s calibre could descend into the abyss and engage in a despicable act of removing a report it had posted on its official website since March 21, 2009 and denying its existence, when GNA started serialising it.

IEA stated in a press release on Monday, August 15, 2011; “Our attention has been drawn to an article published on the website of GNA, entitled ‘IEA slams NPP for abuse of incumbency in Elections 2008’. The IEA has neither authored such a publication nor conducted a survey or study to that effect. It is also totally false to say that the IEA has released any such non-existent findings. On Saturday 13th August 2011, our premises were indeed closed.”

Conference was at a loss as to where the IEA was coming from because the story said; “IEA stated in a document made available to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Saturday”. It never said the report was made available to the Agency by the IEA.

It pointed out that news work depended on leads and prompts so when someone gave the IEA Report to one of the Agency’s Reporters and he/she cross-checked and found it on the IEA official website, he/she went ahead and used it.

Conference found the behaviour of IEA strange because earlier on Monday a representative of the Public Policy Institute called to complain about the story to the News Editor.

The News Editor painstakingly led her step by step to surf the official website of IEA until she saw the relevant material in a big document titled: “Report on the 2008 General Elections in Ghana”.

The News Editor assumed that the matter was closed, but alas, that was not to be. The IEA quickly removed the whole document from their official website and sent a press release denying the existence of the Report.

However, unknown to the IEA, the GNA had archived the document because it considered it as an important source material and was ready to share it with any of its subscribers if requested.

Conference said; “GNA wants to assure Ghanaians that it will continue to perform to the highest journalistic standards in order to continue to enjoy the high credibility rating it has among the populace.”