Journalism in Ghana needs more enhancement to attract respect - Gayheart Mensah

• Gayheart Mensah says there is the need to promote journalism to enhance respect among the profession

• He says he can effect this through the use of his model POWER UP strategy

• Gayheart Mensah is vying for the position of President of the Ghana Journalists Association

An aspirant in the race for the presidency of the Ghana Journalists Association, Gayheart Mensah, has said that there is the need to promote better ways of professionalism so as to attract the needed respect.

According to him, better organizing the association and its members will put it ahead in achieving this target, and making better the practice of journalism in the country.

Gayheart Member, who is a former Member of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) Board, and a pioneering member of the GTV Breakfast Show, made this known while interacting with GJA members at the Corporation.

“We must introduce a higher sense of professionalism into the practice of this profession if we want to attract the required respect. We must organize ourselves better in order to deploy our unique profession in the service of Ghana. We must keep the welfare of our members upfront on our minds and build a suite of benefit that members can point to, and, that will serve as an attraction to both current and potential members,” he stressed.

He also explained that there is the need to capitalizing on the present technological age in advancing the profession and its members, while still promoting good work ethics, a statement from his office said.

“We ought to explore ways of empowering our membership, particularly in the context of the emerging trends within the profession and help build confidence and optimism for our members. Above all, it is imperative that we restore respect to our profession through our engagement as individuals and as an association,” he said.

Speaking further, he shared his vision for the GJA using the acronym POWER-UP.

He stated that the next phase of the GJA will require the association to “Power Up” in all fields of endeavor in order to be more relevant to the practice of journalism, the journalist and to the development of Ghana.

He explained that POWER in his campaign slogan represents Professionalism, Organization, Welfare, Empowerment and Restoration/Respect for the journalism profession, whilst the UP is a rallying call for the association to step up its game and take up its rightful place as the Fourth Estate of the Realm, not just in theory but in a very pragmatic way.

The aspiring GJA president said his tenure would see a lot more capacity building to enhance the professionalism of members.

He pledged that the GJA secretariat under his leadership will be organized to improve upon membership services and effectively drive participation in critical national conversations.

Welfare of members of the association was of great importance to the aspirant as well, for which he outlined a number of initiatives.

He also indicated that he had already had preliminary talks with fund management entities towards the introduction of a voluntary contributory pension fund for members of the association.

That, he said, was to ease the challenges that confront members when they go on retirement. He shared various ideas that will empower media practitioners and restore respect, credibility and integrity to the practice of journalism.

Gayheart Mensah used to host a current affairs program on GTV called News Conference as well as the author and presenter of a GTV Commentary Segment. And, until two years ago, he was an adjunct lecturer in Advance Journalism and Development Journalism at the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ).

Gayheart previously worked with the “Ghanaian Times”, “Daily Graphic” and was the Acting Editor of the “Evening News” about 21 years ago. He worked as Presidential Correspondent, Parliamentary Correspondent, Court Correspondent and Assistant to the Features Editor of the “Daily Graphic”.