By Naabenyin Joojo Amissah.
Many people often say the pen of a journalist can be mightier than a double edged sword of a wild guard and more deadly and dangerous than an assault rifle of a wounded rebel in a war torn country when it comes character assassination and the destruction of a highly gained reputation of an individual.
This can be more true than false because many journalists all over the world in their quest to either be the first to send out information to their listeners, viewers and readers or the first to break news about certain happenings, have either destroyed certain individuals who used many years to build their reputations or have their noble characters completely assassinated or both.
In Ghana today, the quest of media houses and practitioners to be the first to break a news is getting keener by the day due to the proliferation of media houses and the seemingly competition amongst them regarding who broke the news first.
Due to this emerging worrying situation, many journalists often get caught in the web for reporting half true issues or misrepresentation of facts and are made to retract and render an apology. Others who use their pens to concoct and fabricate stories to aid one person or group of persons and destroy eithers by not checking facts are often drawn to the national media commission or drag to court.
To help address the issue of bias reportage and the use of the pen of the journalist to destroy and create instability especially as Ghana would soon be getting to the political arena where politicians would be mounting platforms to campaign, the central regional minister, Hon. Aquanas Tawiah Quansah has made a passionate appeal to the press in the region never to use their pens to destroy.
Mr. Quansah made this appeal when he met the press from the various media houses across the region and beyond at a press soiree organized by the central regional communication directorate of the ruling national democratic congress at the Central Regional Coordinating Council, Cape Coast.
He advised the media practitioners who attended the event in their numbers to be circumspect with their reportage and desist from carrying out stories that have not been thoroughly investigated, in order to avoid misrepresentation and distortion of facts when reporting.
He disclosed that the Regional Coordinating Council R.C.C would soon organize a capacity building workshop for the press in the region to help brooding their knowledge in their noble profession.
Mr. Allotey Jacobs, central regional chairman of the NDC tasked producers and their hosts to careful about the people they invite to their studios as panelists to discuss issues because according to him, some the panelists do exhibit immaturity on radio and create nuisance in the atmosphere.
He disclosed that even the very experienced and matured panelists can sometimes go wayward when the going gets tough and the arguments his get hotter and used his personal experiences to buttress his points saying “I do get wild sometimes on radio myself but Kwame Safa Kai always gets me on track when I am going overboard”.
“I think Kwame Safa Kai should be an example to all talk show hosts present here because he is very much experienced and always have a way of controlling his panelists. He will not allow you to talk anyhow on his show and I will therefore appeal to you to emulate him” Mr. Allotey further advised.
On education, Mr. Tawiah Quansah said it is disheartening to note that though there are a number of well-known senior high schools in the region, many JHS leavers from the region simple cannot get admonition there because of poor performance in their basic school certificate examination.
Mr. Quansah said he had personally met with the heads of some the schools to discuss why the thirty per cent quota of admission allocated to the pupils in the region does not seem to work. He said to his surprise he was told that most pupils from the region do not meet the basic entry requirement to guarantee their admission because their grades always exceed what the schools want.
He therefore appealed to parents to make the education of their wards a top most priority and also charged basic students in the region to take their education seriously and study hard so that they can pass the BECE to enable them secure admission into some of the best schools in the region.