Vetting Of Nominees: Shirley Ayorkor Botchway

Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, Deputy Minister of Information-Designate, when she took her turn before the Committee, defended the relevance of the Ministry of Information, saying the Ministry still had the duty of educating the public on government policies and programmes.

She disagreed with the notion that the Ministry was a propaganda outfit.

On the recent "Wahala Demonstration" organised by opposition political parties against the recent increase in the price of petroleum products, Ms Botchway said every Ghanaian had the right to demonstrate and, therefore, the organisers of the demonstration were perfectly within their right.

On how she would champion the rights of women in her capacity as Deputy Information Minister, Ms Botchway said she would enlist the support of women's groups, MPs and non-governmental organisations to move the agenda of women forward.

She agreed with the question that there were actually cases of marital rape in the country.

On the need to review the mandate of the Media Commission to make it more effective to check excesses on the media front, Ms Botchway said the Commission had so far performed well but there was more room for improvement and possibly a need for review of its mandate.