Accra, March 5, GNA - The Ghana News Agency (GNA), the official news agency of the country, has unveiled a new website christened 'Labaari.com' to provide exclusive services, informative news and exciting products to consumers.
The Agency has also developed a number of product lines covering the GNA Centre for Journalism and Multimedia Studies, events and conferences, advertisers and monitoring and evaluation.
Dr Benard Otabil, the General Manager of the GNA reiterated the important role the agency plays in collecting and providing news from the rural areas in spite of acute logistics and staff constraints.
He said the agency continued to discharge its mandate of gathering and disseminating truthful and unbiased news, both at the national and international circles, placing itself high above the local media.
'It continues to hold sacred, the role of national image-building, fostering national unity, helping to disseminate government policy, as well as mobilizing the people for social and economic development, he added.
Dr Otabil said the agency established some 58 years ago, a day before Ghana was proclaimed an independent state, was well resourced and ranked alongside the national flag, the national anthem and the national airline as the most important.
But the Manager said: 'the GNA's plight today is absolutely unenviable, it has lost effective support from successive governments since the collapse of Nkrumah's regime [Ghana's first president], and is obviously being regarded more as a liability than a national asset.'
He attributed the dwindling fortunes of the agency to poor remuneration and deteriorating working conditions which have caused a lot of experienced reporters and editors to seek greener pastures elsewhere.
'The wages of the agency's staff are considerably lower even in post-single spine times, compared to those offered by many other media organizations,' he lamented.
He said the dwindling and highly irregular subvention from government was badly affecting news production and delivery as well as undermining the credibility of the agency and government, saying the situation called for a restructuring programme to salvage the agency from its predicament.
'...at least government should as a matter of responsibility provide the requisite bailout to ensure that the basic mission of the agency is fulfilled,' he added.
The Ghana News Agency is the official news agency of the country. It was founded in 1957 by Kwame Nkrumah and it was meant to present a more favorable view of the country, fostering national cohesion and unity for development.
Though, the agency is riddled with many challenges, it is considered one of the most efficient news agencies in Africa, spreading clear information of the country and contributing to national cohesion and development.
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