Parliament commends Journalist of the Year

Accra, June 29, GNA-Parliament on Thursday praised Ms Peggy Ama Donkor, current Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) 2205 Best Journalist of the Year, who also won the Best Television Feature Writer Award.

This followed a statement by Ms. Akua Sena Dansua, NDC Member for North Dayi, which eulogized the physically challenged female journalist, who broke the apparent jinx surrounding the "best journalist of the year award" which for several year was won by able bodied male journalists. Ms Dansua commended three other female journalists, Linda Asante-Agyei of the Ghana News Agency who won the Best Health Reporter Award; Shirley Quaicoo of the Daily Graphic newspaper, for winning the Best Rural Reporter; and Joyce Anim Ayeko, of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, for being the Best Radio Feature.

"Mr Speaker, the lesson that all these female award winners teach their female colleagues in the profession and indeed women in other professions is that in spite of the challenges women face in life, a little extra effort pays off", Ms Dansua said.

She observed that female journalists were taking commanding heights on the media landscape; and added that women would bring laudable characteristics of peacefulness and carefulness to bear on the Ghanaian media.

Ms Dansua expressed concern about the falling standards in the practice of journalism "as some practitioners are tending to see the once enviable profession as a simple way out of life and also one that they should exploit to enrich themselves at the expense of objectivity and professionalism."

She also commended Mr Ransford Tetteh, the new president of the GJA, and the new GJA executive on attaining their new position. Ms Dansua said the GJA would have to concentrate on re-orienting journalists on media ethics and flush out people who willfully brought the profession into disrepute.

"Perhaps the time has come to consider the issue of regulation, as being proposed by certain members of society", Ms Dansua advocated. Capt. Nkrabea Effah Dartey (rtd) NPP Member for Berekum contributing to the statement, said much as the press needed to be glorified, journalists must remember that their victims were at the receiving end and crosscheck allegations before publishing them. He prayed the GJA to enforce the ethics of the profession and impose appropriate sanctions against offending journalists. Mr Haruna Iddrisu, NDC Member for Tamale South, underscored the need for Broadcasting Law to govern the practice of broadcasting in Ghana. Mr Enoch Teye Mensah NDC Member for Ningo Prampram noted that the press freedom must go with responsibility. 29 June 06