Reporters without borders, a team of global media monitors, have ranked Ghana first in press freedom on the African content and 27th in the world.

The vice president of Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), Mr. Affail Monney announced this in Accra, during a workshop organised under the auspices of the West African Journalist Association under its capacity building project (WAJA-CBP) for unions and associations.

The workshop was attended by 30 practitioners from the print and electronic media. Speaking on the theme 'Improving ethics and Professional standards in Journalism.'

Mr. Monney said that the media freedom can be guaranteed if journalist pay greater attention to ethics and professionalism.

He said, the media should be able to erase the negative perceptions and overcome the challenges that confront them.

Mr. Maigari Chamsou, a representative of WAJA, said that WAJA aims at reinforcing professional capacities of media in the sub-region; and its own institutional capacity and that of national unions and association in order to promote democracy, ensure participatory governance and transparency in ECOWAS member states.

He also expressed concerns about how the practice of journalism is no longer conditioned by training in recognised institutions; hence, the decline in quality of the press and the less respect for ethics.

The situation, he said, is particularly the same from Guinea-Conakry to Nigeria, The Gambia, Ghana, Senegal, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. Mr. Chamsou also called on participants to make the most of the three day workshop to help promotion of quality journalism in the country.

He urged media practitioners to raise high standards and live up to public expectation. A media consultant, Mr. Edward Ameyibor, advised media practitioners to preserve the freedom that was attained by their predecessors in journalism to develop democracy.

Mr. Ameyibor urged journalist to be conscious and responsible in their reportage.