Mr. Roland Affail Monney, President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has reminded journalists of the crucial role they play in the development of the country.
He said Solutions Journalism is the way to go if Ghana is set to witness an upswing in economic and social development.
According to him, as a departure from the penchant of using journalism to destroy people’s reputation and to bring people down, solution oriented journalism has come to empower media practitioners to use the power they wield and the influence they peddle to find solutions to social problems.
Mr. Monney was speaking at the opening of a two-day workshop funded by the Journalists for Human Rights in Canada and implemented by the Ghana Journalists Association.
He explained that there are so many issues surrounding us that is begging for answers indicating that Ghana’s journalism space is littered with all kinds of political stories.
“My understanding of the topic we are discussing is for us to sharpen our focus on issues that will make life worth living for you and for our brothers and sisters and for humanity in general” he said.
The GJA President continued: “All that we expect the crop of modern journalists like you is for you to use your power, medium, position, connections to tackle these things. Journalism is far beyond what politicians say. Politicians are politicians…”
In his view, under solutions oriented journalism, “we [journalists] should keep track of [political] promises and ensure that politicians or officialdom, people in positions of power and authority match their promise with actions and expose those hollow rhetoric’s and those who hide behind them, pushing people who are supposed to act making sure that state resources are used for the purpose for which they are intended to be used”.
“Politicians are addicted to empty platitudes, inflated rhetoric, they promise more than they can deliver but we have the mandate, the Constitutional empowerment to hold to account people in positions and power and authority” Mr. Monney noted.
The GJA President further added: “This is all that we expect from you under solutions oriented journalism. Giving you caliber, pedigree and who you are, I am inclined to believe that you will come out of this workshop prepared and resolved to bring about qualitative improvement in this branch of journalism which can make a world of difference in the world in which we live.”
Mr. Monney decried the situation where journalism is described in certain circles as an abattoir which is used to slice and dice people’s hard earned reputation stressing that “sometimes the wickedness, the carelessness with which people’s reputation is destroyed terrifies the soul and boggles the mind”.
Mrs. Linda Asante-Agyei, Vice President of the GJA in a remark said the project is focusing on vaccines, COVID-19 and human rights with more emphasis on women and children.
She maintained that there is still quite a number of the population which have not been vaccinated yet due to their personal views and some of the myths in social media.
Mrs. Asante-Agyei stated that solutions Journalism is not new to “us because we have been doing it already…”
| International Journalist and Editor of Zamireports, Zubaida Afua Mabuno Ismail, who opened the training tasked the journalists to tell compelling stories in order to make the desired impacts. |
The Mobilizing Media to Fight COVID-19 is a Journalists for Human Rights and Ghana Journalists Association partnership which seeks to train and equip Journalists with the skills in Human Rights Reporting and COVID-19 Reporting.
The phase two of the project involves some 17 selected journalists in Ghana who will be joining some 23 others from the Phase 1 in a mentoring session.
source By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
