Don’t Look For Financial Favours - Affram Asiedu

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, has advised journalists not to look for finacncial favours (otherwise known as 'soli') after covering events. Such a practice, he said, would have a negative influence on their reportage, professional competence and credibility.

Mr Affram Asiedu, therefore, urged media men and women to be circumspect at all times, since that would enable them to attain greater heights in their career. He made the remarks at a reception he organised for the Eastern Regional Press Corps in Koforidua.

The meeting was to enable the minister to obtain firsthand information about the difficulties journalists in the region went through and how best to address them to enable them to disseminate information that would accelerate the region's development.

The minister appealed to employers, particularly those in the private media, to adequately reward their employees to enable them to desist from the unprofessional practice of demanding rewards from event organisers.

He said as human beings, journalists were entitled to decent livestyles and the only way they could do that was to get good renumeration like other professionals.

“Journalists are also workers or professionals who should be catered for by their employers and if their employers fail to do so and they go out looking for “soli”, then they should not be blamed,” the minister stressed.

To help advance the region's socio-economic and political development through the media, the regional minister said his administration would, in April next year, organise a mini durbar at which journalists who distinguished themselves would be identified and rewarded.

Mr Afram Asiedu asked journalists to develop themselves through formal and informal training to enable them to meet the fast changing journalistic field and gave the assurance that he would do everything within his power to enable journalists in the region to operate in a serene atmosphere.

The acting Chairman of the Eastern Regional Chapter of the Ghana Journalists Association, Mr Edmund Quaynor, assured the regional minister of the preparedness of the members of the association to give out the necessary information that would project the region positively.

Story by A. Kofoya-Tetteh