Timely Advice

The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA's) advice to journalists to partner politicians in promoting the country's development agenda is timely.

Indeed, journalists are crucial in the success of the work of politicians, especially in the election year that Ghana is in at the moment.

Their action or inaction could either promote or demote the agenda of politicians. If journalists carry out their work well, there would be free and fair elections in the country in December.

From this, one could say the role of the media cannot be dispensed with, when good governance and democratic practices are to be considered.

For these reasons, it would be suicidal for an individual or group of journalists to allow their political affiliations to infiltrate their profession.

Under such circumstances, the journalist cannot be neutral in his work. A media practitioner would be tempted to slant his article in favour of his chosen political party and against the opponents of his favourite party.

The unfortunate situation could go a long way to cause trouble and misunderstanding in a country where there is sharp political rivalry among two or three political parties.

Journalism is an honourable profession. Media practitioners must therefore put up behaviour to reflect the noble objectives of the profession.

If journalists would allow their political interests to infiltrate their professions, they would not be doing justice to themselves and the profession.

Some politicians are capable of feeding journalists with wrong information with the intention of gaining upper hand in a particular case.

Others can also tell only the good side of themselves and their political parties, and leave out the others, but the discerning journalist must be able to tell what he was told to be the whole truth and treat it as such.

The media practitioner who might not be able to discharge this onerous task creditably would be creating confusion and misunderstanding in the society.

For a good media practitioner worth his salt, he should check and cross-check the source of his information before going on air or publishing the story, otherwise, he would be carrying wrong information to the people.

We suggest that from now to the time of the election, GJA must organize a series of courses for journalists to equip them well enough to discharge their duties successfully during the elections.

With what is happening in some parts of Africa in the area of politics, the international community is looking up to Ghana to show the way to those troubled areas to save them.

Ghanaian media practitioners have the responsibility to partner their politicians to lead the country to a glorious future.

DAILY GUIDE urges media practitioners to discharge that duty successfully to bring honour and respect to themselves and mother Ghana.