Miss Joyce Aryee, former Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, on Thursday added her voice in condemning the upsurge of hate speech, malice and falsehood that has characterized the political scene.

She called on professional communicators to work effortlessly to punish any political party that appoint spokespersons who would reduce the name of the Public Relations profession to contempt, ridicule and disrepute.

She said this when speaking at the public lecture organized by the Institute of Public Relations (IPR) Ghana, to mark the association’s 40th Anniversary celebration in Accra.

Ms Aryee said “let all spokespersons beware, that arrogance is the most dangerous weakness in their roles,” adding “immediately you find yourself feeling higher in status than your audience, you should realize that you will better serve the interest of the organization you represent by venturing into another career.”

She proposed the establishment of a National Association of Spokespersons in Ghana with a set of principles to regulate the activities of all members.

Ms Aryee said the Association must spell out ways of expelling members who went contrary to the expectations of their performance as outlined in the principles guiding the members.

“Public rebuke and disbarring from membership of the Association must be enforced without fear or favour. Beyond that let us spend time to study and replicate the skills of the ‘Okyeame” (linguist) and with that we will reward our audience with credible, refreshing information in a professional and a responsible manner,” she said.

Ms Aryee appealed to the practitioners to seek to unite rather than divide the country using ethical and responsible behavior and actions.

She said there were many ways that organizations and individuals could hold their spokespersons accountable for their actions and inactions.

Ms Aryee stressed that the institutions and organizations could punish their spokespersons when they went wrong by keeping them mute for days or appointing others who were more qualified to take their place.

The IPR, Ghana, has chosen the theme: “IPR at 40: Consolidating the image of Ghana as a peaceful and democratic nation” for this year’s Anniversary celebration.

The institute acknowledges Ghana’s peerless stature as a beacon of stability, peace and progress within the West African sub-region.

It also recognizes, however, that certain internal and external elements have the potential of disturbing the peaceful and democratic paths the country had taken.

IPR, Ghana intends using the year-long Anniversary celebration to discuss specific sub-themes relating to consolidating the image of Ghana as a peaceful and democratic nation.

The themes would include “Creating professionally responsible spokespersons,” “Role of Public Relations in democratic governance;” and Public Relations in economic growth and national development” and “Public Relations and the media: two sides of a golden coin.”**