Media Urged To Be On The Side Of Peace

The best legacy the Ghanaian media can give to the late President John Evans Atta Mills is to be on the side of peace, the Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr Kabral Blay Amihere has advised.

He said “in whatever the media will do they should consider Ghana first”.

Speaking after filing past the body of late President at the State Banquet Hall last Friday, Ambassador Amihere said the late President was very much concerned about media standards and did his best to support the media in diverse ways.

He said the late president made a colossal contribution to the media and would be remembered more with the establishment of the Media Development Fund.

The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Ransford Tetteh, after leading executive members of the GJA to pay their last respect to the late president, said they were sad about the sudden demise of the President but pointed out that they had come to the reality that the President was on his way to his maker.

He said President Atta Mills deepened the frontiers of media freedom with his frequent encounters with the media at the Castle.

He said during these news conferences, the late President stressed his standpoints to the nation in a very humorous way and these encounters made headlines for weeks.

“All over the world personalities who generate controversies are loved by media practitioners because controversies sell”, he said.

Mr Tetteh indicated that the GJA recalled the characteristic way in which he emphasised his position on the Ivorian Crisis with the retort “Dzi wu fieasem”.

Again, when the late President was confronted with the remark of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Chairman that there were so many ways to kill a cat, he asked the journalists who posed the question that “look at my face, do I look like a cat hunter”, Mr Tetteh recalled.

He said the GJA was grateful to the late President for establishing the Media Development Fund and expressed the regret that he did not live to see to the disbursement of the fund.

According to Mr Tetteh, the GJA was hopeful that the humble and peaceful nature of the late President and the fact that his death brought the whole nation together would motivate all Ghanaians to eschew the politics of insults.