The Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon Simon Osei-Mensah has vowed never to grant interviews to a radio station within the Kumasi Metropolis over unfair reportage.

He mentioned Multimedia’s Nhyira FM as an outlet on which he will never grant interviews either in person or on the telephone.

The Minister believes the Multimedia outlet in the Ashanti Regional capital has not been fair in their reportage, especially in relation to issues of the fight against illegal mining popularly known as ‘galamsey’.

“All institutions are politicized including the media, at the moment a presenter can talk and I know how I will take it because of my perception of that media station.

"I will give you an example, no matter what you do to me I will never go to Nhyira FM, they can say whatever they want to say. So, the day they will even say the truth I will take it as lies,” Hon Simon Osei Mensah told the media.

Mr. Simon Osei Mensah made his stance known during a conference organized by the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GHEITI) held at the Golden Bean Hotel on September 28, 2023.

Speaking on the need for every Ghanaian to join the fight against illegal mining, Hon Simon Osei Mensah acknowledged the fact that, the country has not been able to deal with the menace because almost every institution has been politicized including the media.

He revealed that, he has been able to create the perception on every media station hence Nhyira FM can make any presentation on radio and he would not be bothered about it.

According to him, even if the station says positive things about him, he will consider it as something negative.

“Even on the day they will say good things about me I will take it as bad”, Hon Simon Osei Mensah stressed.

The Minister further urged Ghanaians to be circumspect about the argument on illegal mining.

“All of us in the country should agree that we want to fight illegal mining. He stressed that Ghanaians themselves leak information about the movement security in areas where the galamsey activities are going on”, he said.