I’m very sorry if I was selective – Hamid

Information Minister Mustapha Hamid has apologised to media houses which may have felt slighted or sidelined in favour of others at the President’s encounter with the media on Tuesday.

His apology follows accusations by certain media houses that a few media groups were favoured to the neglect of others.

“Somehow, there is an accusation which I’ve heard which may be justified that many of the people who were called were either from EIB or Multimedia … the justifiable one is what I’m admitting to you, there’s no need to lie, that there were many people from EIB and Multimedia, but they are independent media houses on their own,” Mr Hamid told Class News’ Kwesi Parker-Wilson.

“If you look at it, this is Adom FM, this is Joy FM, this is Joy TV, this is GHOne, this is Agoo TV. I mean if you want to say that the whole of Multimedia, too, you’ll just allow one question, it’ll not be fair but you heard me say that for Joy FM in particular I would allow only one person to ask only the question, so I was conscious enough.

“I called Daily Graphic, I called Daily Guide, I called GTV, so I tried to be as balanced as possible but I’m human, of course and if I’ve made mistakes I admit that I’ve made those mistakes, I’m not perfect at all, so if I’ve made mistakes I apologise sincerely from the bottom of my heart. I’m very sorry, let them forgive me but it can never be deliberate.”

Ahead of the Q&A session, the president had praised the media for their support for him in the past six months and said he would prefer a “noisy, scandalous” media to a “sycophantic” one.