Media must be fair and objective - Prof Mills

Accra, March 2 GNA - Professor John Evans Atta- Mills, the Presidential Candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Tuesday urged the media to be fair and objective in its reportage. He said the media's attachment to personalities and political groups should not deter them from letting the truth to prevail always. Prof. Mills made these statements at a Public forum organised by the NDC on the topic: "The State of Our Nation: The Way Forward" in Accra.

The function, which was chaired by Dr Yao Obed Asamoah, National Chairman of the Party, brought together many of the NDC party stalwarts, Members of Parliament and other functionaries.

He urged the media to do away with old prejudices and to help to assist in the realisation of the vision they had set for this country.

He said the frontiers of freedom, once breached were not easily restored.

The Former Vice President said the coming election was a battle of some sort, whose real adversaries were poverty, ignorance and general under-development.

He said he had acknowledged the important contribution of the media since the birth of the Fourth Republic and had been even more impressed since the NDC went into opposition, notwithstanding, his occasional reservations about what the media had written, aired or screened.

He said what was perceived to be wrong during the time of one government could not suddenly become right when the government changed hands.

Prof Mills made a special appeal to the private media to be vigilant and guard against subtle and gradual encroachment on the freedom and independence of the media.

He advised the state-owned media not to show bias towards the NDC party.

Prof Mills said when the NDC was in government; the state-owned media received a lot of bashing from the opposition NPP that they were pro-government, even though their level of bias at the time was nowhere near what it was today.

He cited an instance where the NPP even obtained a Supreme Court judgement against the GBC for them to be fair and impartial. "That attitude of parties in opposition to the state-owned media creates the impression of the state-owned media being at the beck and call of the government of the day," he said.