Presidential Encounter: Media houses were unfairly represented - Former GJA Boss

A former President of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) and a member of the Ghana Bar Association, Lawyer Nana Yaw Osei has criticised organisers of the maiden presidential press encounter for failing to allow fair representation of media houses in the country.

On Kumasi-based Agyenkwa Fm, he said it did not give fair opportunities to press men to participate in questioning the President about his six-months in office.

On Tuesday July 18, 2017 president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo addressed the press and later responded to some questions about his 6-month old government at the Flagstaff House.

He touched on health, education, governance, agriculture, energy and other key sectors of the economy including inflation, exchange rate, among other government’s activities in the last six months of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

But Lawyer Osei opined that there should have be a proper category in the selection of members from the inky fraternity who will ask questions during the conference.

“Some press men did not get the opportunity to ask questions, not because they have no issues but it’s because they are not given the fairground to do that. Some may say organizers cannot call everyone, but let’s ask: what is the criterion used in selecting people to ask questions”. He quizzed.

He also noted that there should have been a proper way of choosing press men to throw their questions to the president so that nobody can blame or even doubt the legitimacy of the conference.