"Influx of untrained people into journalism worrying"-Omanhene

Koforidua, June 23, GNA - Okotwasuo Kantamanto Oworae Agyekum the third, Omanhene of the Akyem Bosome Traditional Area, had noted with concern the situation where all manner of people without any training are practising as Journalists.

He said the situation if not checked, would destroy the image of journalism in the country.

Okotwasuo Oworae Agyekum has therefore called on the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to build a media directory for the identification of all credible journalists, as a measure to protect the image of the profession, as well as the unsuspecting public from falling prey to the miscreants.

According to him, the media directory would have the information of all credible journalists in the nation and be made available to all institutions and organisations to guide them in their dealings with the media.

He noted that the media had been reduced to a money extortion avenue in recent years because people had broken into the circles of the real media practitioners and using their image to make money for themselves.

The Omanhene, who made the observation in an interview with GNA in Koforidua, said it was disheartening that such a noble profession had become a phenomenon, where anybody, including 93school dropouts" and others, who had no qualification to guarantee them any job now claim to be journalists.

This phenomenon, he stressed if not checked would in the nearest future create an identity crisis for who a real journalist is and the essence of the journalist in the socio-economic development of the nation.

He said it was regrettable that journalists, who society expected to inform and educate the people, had now become those, who knew nothing let alone to educate others.

The Omanhene questioned why people, who had no qualification, were all trooping into journalism and no other profession, adding that, the GJA must wake up and adopt a stringent measure to protect their profession.

For him, so far as there were other professional bodies that had been able to guard against people infiltrating them, the GJA can also adopt measures such as the building of a media directory to weed the bad ones out.

He said the public had become aware of the phenomenon and if care was not taken, they would rise against journalists in their quest to sanitise the system and urged the GJA to rise up to the occasion.