Journalists urged to act as catalyst for development

Takoradi, June 13, GNA - Mr Baba Jamal, a Deputy Minister of Information, on Saturday, called on Journalists and media practitioners in general, to act as catalyst for development rather than creating chaos and unnecessary tension in the country.

"You should remember that aside your profession, you are a citizen of the country and so must endeavour to contribute your quota through positive and objective reportage towards the development of the country", he added.

Mr Jamal said this at a meeting with some selected media practitioners in the Western Region to solicit their support in moving the country forward.

The Deputy Information Minister told the media practitioners that government recognizes the important role the media is playing in realising the better Ghana agenda.

He urged them to criticize constructively and also provide government with ideas and proposals that could be used in harnessing the country's development.

Mr Jamal noted that the new paradigm shift in the country's democratic growth could not have been achieved without the support of the media, adding that, the ministry was willing to partner every one, who has the development of the nation at heart.

He said the NDC government was committed in providing a trusted leadership, saying that, 93we want to remove all suspicion and mistrust". Mr Jamal said the ministry was also creating a database on the ten regions of Ghana for easy access of information on the various regions, as part of the branding Ghana initiative.

The ministry, he said had therefore tasked all regional offices of the Information Services Department to collect data on the various districts across the country for that purpose.

He said the Ministry is currently collecting slogans from all the regions, and that, starting from next year, the DVLA will emboss these slogans on every new car being registered to serve as some form of identity. The Brong Ahafo region has the slogan-the best of all', Western region, 'the best comes from the west', Eastern region has the slogan, the best starts from the east', Upper West is the 91smile of the Xylophone', Upper East, 91the light of the north', whiles the other regions were yet to produce a slogan.

Mr Jamal was also not happy about the misuse of national emblems, particularly the Coat of Arms, and urged the media to create the awareness, lest the symbol would loose its national importance and dignity.

Captain Rtd Anthony Cudjoe, Metropolitan Chief Executive of Sekondi/Takoradi called on the media not to forget their responsibility of setting national agendas, adding that, 93Now it is serial callers who set the agenda for the media houses".

He said media houses devote too much time and space to funeral announcement, at the expense of developmental stories, saying that, "Go to the UK and other places, you will not see funeral announcement in papers, the pages are rather devoted to developmental news".

Captain Cudjoe called on practitioners to live by the tenets of the profession and support government in its quest to develop the country.