Parliament to establish PR Unit

The Parliamentary Service Board has approved the establishment of a public relations unit to improve the House's public image and bring it closer to the people.

Speaker of Parliament, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey, who announced this at Aburi near Accra said Parliament was considering introducing guidelines for reporters on coverage of the House and establish a mutual relationship with the media to deepen democratic practices.

The move is also an attempt to make it possible for the House to respond to issues raised by the media in a more comprehensive manner in the wake recent publications in the media on parliamentarians and loans for cars with specific reference to the speaker’s official car.

Mr Ala Adjetey was opening a two- day workshop for the Parliamentary The workshop sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) was attended by 22 journalists from the both print and electronic media.

The Speaker said reportage on parliamentary activities serves a useful purpose in conveying to the people the substance of debates and discussions. "The press is therefore the standard vehicle for the dissemination of public opinion".

Quoting former Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, the Speaker said: "Freedom, like everything else and more than everything else, carries certain responsibilities and obligations, and if these responsibilities and disciplines are lacking then it is no freedom, it is the absence of freedom".

He asked journalists to be mindful of the fact that freedom of expression has its limitation under the law. "Article 164 of the Constitution provides that freedom of the press is subject to laws that are reasonably required in the interest of national security, public order, public morality and for the purposes of protecting the reputations, rights and freedom of other persons.

Mr Ala Adjetey said Parliament has the right to punish those who deliberately distort or malign others through false publications according to its Standing Orders.

Parliament has restrained itself from stretching the law on this form of reporting being contemptuous of Parliament but that did not mean that the law did not exist, the Speaker added.

He cautioned against sensationalism saying if the media did not do away with that and showed responsibility, "the opportunity of a widened access to information which the Right to Information Bill seeks to achieve, may be dealt a severe blow".

Mr Peter Schellschmidt, Resident Director of FES said the foundation was supportive of the seminar (workshop) because it would create a forum to address "the old problem of deep mistrust that seems to prevail between politicians and the media".

"Mutual trust and mutual respect for each other's role and function is necessary pre-requisite for a healthy relationship".

Mr Schellschmidt said the world would judge Parliament on the basis of the perceptions of the Parliamentary Press Corps.