The Ghana News Agency (GNA) has appointed former West Africa magazine Editor Desmond Davies as its first London Bureau Chief.
This is in line of the vision of the General Manager, Dr Bernard Otabil, to establish the GNA as an influential source of news and views from both home and abroad, from an African perspective.
Dr. Otabil who was appointed in March, also once worked at the influential Magazine in London as one of its editors, and the appointment of Mr Davies will bring to the GNA journalistic credentials that are globally respected.
Mr Davies stated in his remarks that he was happy to be part of the GNA, given that when President Kwame Nkrumah established it, it was to give the continent a voice in world affairs. “But over the years, Africa has lost its voice in the international media”, Mr Davies observed.
The London-based journalist went on to say that he would like to see the GNA operating as a truly independent media organisation providing trenchant analysis without any fear.
“Indeed, I don’t think that the GNA should shy away from batting aggressively for Africa,” said Mr. Davies. “But then Dr Otabil himself is a brave journalist who does not mince his words when he is batting for Africa. I think we will make a good team once again.”
Mr Davies, originally from Sierra Leone, has been a journalist for over four decades and has lived and worked in the UK since 1978 for a number of Africa-related magazines such as New African, Africa Now and West Africa.
He has covered Africa extensively and has provided expert commentary on African affairs for the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera and Press TV.
Apart from filing stories, feature articles and commentaries for the GNA, Mr. Davies will also recruit correspondents in other parts of Africa for the Agency, thus making it a truly pan-African media organisation.
He will also visit Accra to run training programmes for journalists, as part of the resource persons to lecture at the GNA Centre for Journalism and Multimedia Studies.
