Nana K. B. Asante, Chairman of Public Utility Regulatory Commission (PURC), on Saturday tasked the media to live up to their constitutional mandate of exposing corruption and other forms of official malfeasance.
"This constitutional role imposes on the mass media a corresponding duty to maintain the highest standards of integrity. Like the judiciary, the press is not immune from accountability itself," he said.
Nana Asante expressed these views in a keynote address to the 53rd Annual New Year School, which is underway at the University of Ghana, Legon, on the theme: "Good Governance and Sustainable National Development".
His address, which focused on the imperatives of the theme, said the National Media Commission (NMC) had a responsibility "to take all appropriate measures to ensure the establishment and maintenance of the highest journalistic standards in the media."
Nana Asante's 23-page address covered the imperatives of governance conducive to sustainable development, the extent to which these imperatives had been met the country's constitutional system and practices and prescriptions for strengthening good governance.
He noted that since independence African leaders and development practitioners had wrestled with the thorny issues of the efficacy of authoritarianism or democracy for development.
He said the experience of Ghana within the last 10 years demonstrates that democracy and the rule of law constituted a critical component for development.
Nana Asante said these laudable efforts could be eroded by arbitrary use of political power, which acted as a disincentive for entrepreneurial or productive activities. "These practices may emerge as part of the process of democratic politics but are patently inimical for development."
He said the rule of law provided the secure environment for the protection of private interest, individual rights and productive economic activities.
Nana Asante said there could be little doubt about the crucial role of the judiciary in ensuring political stability as well as social and economic cohesion.
He said the constitution invested in the judiciary far reaching powers to determine the constitutionality of Legislative and Executive Acts. Nana Asante observed that good governance demanded that the Executive Arms of Government should be accountable for its acts and they should be the outcome of the transparent processes.
Prof. Miranda Greenstreet, Chairperson of the Managing Trustees of the Valco Trust Fund, who chaired the function asked the over 300 participants to dispassionately discuss the address.
