Journalists urged to promote peace

Mr. Emmanuel Bombande, Chief Executive Officer, West African Network of Peace – Building (WANEP), has urged journalists to play intermediary roles in peace promotion and building efforts.

He called on them to remain impartial and to develop a high degree of sensitivity in their reportage irrespective of political affiliation to promote national cohesion and development. Mr Bombande was speaking at a two-day workshop organised by the West African Network of Peace building (WANEP) for about 43 journalists in the southern sector of the country on conflict sensitive reporting. The workshop was aimed at sensitizing the journalists on the need for them to develop appropriate journalistic skills to help minimize election related violence as the 2012 national elections approached. It was under the theme, “Building Media Capacities for Peace in 2012”. The chief executive officer urged journalists to ensure that issues that could cause violence were not reported, adding “Ghana is our own nation and if we do not tell good stories about it no one will do it for us”. Mr Bombande stated that in most developed countries there were a lot of negative issues but their journalists did not report about them in order to protect the image of such countries. He stressed that it was journalists who made a nation proud and urged the Ghanaian media not to abuse the professional ethics but to publish stories that would help sustain the peace. The WANEP boss urged the media to play its role effectively during the December elections, advising that it was not every issue or information that a journalist came across that should be put in the public domain. Whenever there is war all sections of the people suffer in one way or the other and there is therefore the need to protect the peace of the nation and not to allow things to get out of hand, Mr Bombande added. He underscored the need to identify the root causes of conflicts, crisis management and how that could transform the nation. The chief executive officer noted it was imperative for journalists to report on how conflicts could be prevented with the assistance of the general public rather than reporting on the effects of conflicts. Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, a lecturer at the School of Communications, University of Ghana, entreated journalists to practice peace journalism rather than feed the public with information that could incite individuals or groups to spark conflicts. She explained that even though the public seemed to be interested in negative stories instead of positive ones, journalists should find a way of packaging their stories that would satisfy the interests of the general populace. Mr Justine Bayor, national network coordinator of WANEP, speaking on human security early warning, advised journalists to be watchdogs in their communities and to inform the security agencies on issues that had the potential to create carnage or bother the security of the nation.

GNA