Pay journalists well to be professional – Smith

Mr Victor Smith, acting Eastern Regional Minister, has called on owners of media houses to be properly organised to build a solid foundation of the journalism profession in order to contribute their quota to Ghana’s development.

He said the only way the media could build a solid professional foundation was when owners of the media houses employed qualified, serious and disciplined journalists for their respective networks and then paid them well.

“The press in Ghana is not different from the press abroad; owners of the media houses must pomp more money into the work and employ qualified and disciplined professionals and pay them well so that they will concentrate on the job rather than “soli.”

Mr Smith said this when he hosted a press soiree for the media in the Eastern Region at the Regional Residency in Koforidua on Friday.

The minister bemoaned the poor remuneration of journalists in the country which had compelled most of them to rely on solidarities from news makers to be able to do their job.

He pointed out that such situation did not serve the country any good adding: “We are supposed to make it better than how we came to meet it. I want to see the nation grow through the press and I want to see journalists doing wonders.”

Mr Smith urged journalists in the country to strive to get the best for national development, advising that the media and the general Ghanaian citizenry should not see national development through partisanship.

“If we continue to do that, Ghana will end up wallowing in underdevelopment,” he said. Mr Edmund Quaynor, Regional Ghana Journalists Association Chairman, called on municipal and district chief executives to engage the media to showcase their performances to Ghanaians and the international community.