NMC Commends GNA for Balanced Coverage

The Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr Nutifafa Kuenyehia, on Saturday commended the Ghana News Agency for setting the pace for a wider, accurate, and balanced reporting.

"If most of our media houses were to use copies of the GNA Bulletin, they could be saved from the allegations of bias and at other times, the complaints of ethical breaches, or defamatory materials that they are accused of," he said, when he opened an annual Regional Managers' Conference of the Agency at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region.

"GNA is noted for its objectivity and balanced reporting in its news gathering," he said, attracting cheers from the senior management staff meeting on the theme: "Facing The Future."

The three-day meeting discussed management issues like, "the Restructuring of the GNA, Personnel Relations - New ways of doing things, Improving GNA's revenue generation capacity; Effective supervision and Setting the pace again".

Mr Kuenyehia urged management and staff to continue to demonstrate professionalism in the discharge of their duties.

"Do not be pawns to any group or interest, neither should you allow yourselves to be misused for whatever cause.

I also urge you to work as a team to pursue internal democracy and transparency... Always remember the objectives for which the Agency was set up."

Mr Kuenyehia appealed to the government to provide the necessary finances without delay to enable the GNA to regain its past "as one of the best and most professional News Agencies on the African Continent."

He congratulated the management and staff for their commitment to work, despite the daunting financial difficulties and constraints like antiquated machinery and low remuneration.

Mr Robert Kafui Johnson, General Manager, called for a review of the commercialisation programme of the Agency being undertaken by the National Institutional Renewal Programme (NIRP) to wean it from government subvention.

He said if GNA should be fully commercialised, it would adversely affect its public services such as rural coverage.