The President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E Akuffo Addo has set the records straight that he does not need to buy the media for his government to look good in the eyes of Ghanaians.
He made this claim when the Delegation of Ghana Journalist Association(GJA) led by their President, Mr Affail Monney paid a courtesy call on H.E Akuffo Addo.
President Akuffo Addo said media in diversity and divergent opinion is better than a uniformed media because according to him media pluralism sometimes put the government on its toes
President Akuffo Addo expressed that he was encouraged by the continuing vibrancy; diversity of the Ghanaian media and their contribution to the socio-political discourse of the country
H.E Akuffo Addo said, he will hesitate to accept any situation that looks for uniformity in the media. “People have tried it all over the world and it never works. It doesn’t work for a simple reason, we all think differently and the media reflects these different ways that human beings think” President Akufo-Addo said. “I am happy to see that this tendency, this tradition, is becoming stronger and stronger in our nation, the free, vigorous, and diversified media. Those of us in public life, we should be able to take it” Akufo-Addo added.
The GJA delegation led by its President Affail Monney included the vice president of the GJA, Linda Asante Adjei (Editor of the Ghana News Agency, GNA), the Treasurer Audrey Dakalu, 2018 Journalist of the year, Doreen Hammond of the Daily Graphic and Kwame Sefa Kayi, the 2017 Journalist of the year.
The GJA president commended H.E Akuffo Addo for honoured their invitation to open the African Journalists Leaders Conference held in Accra recently and also donated a VW saloon car to the 2020 journalist of the year.
On his side, the GJA President Mr Monney appealed to the government to take off the spectrum and regulatory fees for broadcasting institutions for one year, corporate tax on wages of media practitioners for three (3) months. “We believe that a positive response from your office will help bring the media back to normalcy” GJA president asserted.
Affail Monney also indicated that the current GJA office building (the international press centre) which was renovated and donated by the Kufuor government per an assessment done by structural engineers has developed defects so they have designed a fifteen (15) storey building that the Association needs assistance from the government.
“We believe that this can be added to your legacy projects because that enclave has the national cathedral and the recently inaugurated passport office. We humbly appeal to your good offices to add the international press centre project to your legacies” GJA President, Affail Monney said.
In response to the request, President Akufo-Addo asked the Association to contact the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah for an initial discussion.
President Akufo-Addo also indicated that all the other issues such as the proposals for support to the media to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be given the necessary executive attention it deserves.