Accra, Jan. 12, GNA - The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) on Friday urged media practitioners to provide fair coverage to all political parties in the run up to the December polls this year, in order to sustain the peace.

They should also play their gate-keeping role effectively and not pander to the whims and dictates of any interest groups. "Ghana is bigger than any interest groups. It is obligatory for the media to discharge their constitutional duties by providing fair coverage for the political parties in the contest for the presidency," Mr Ransford Tetteh, President of the GJA told journalists at the GJA/Unilever Annual Press Soiree in Accra.

Mr Tetteh said journalists could play their role of setting the agenda for the 2008 elections by bringing into the forefront of public discussion issues affecting the country's development. "Let us challenge the politicians to tell us in concrete terms how they hope to address the challenges confronting the health and education sectors; how they hope to deal with youth unemployment, salaries and wages that will take people home to enable them take care of their needs, water and sanitation problems, among other issues. That way the media will be setting the agenda for election 2008," he said.

While conceding that journalists could not control what politicians said on the campaign trail, Mr Tetteh, however, stressed that journalists wielded the power and control over how such issues were reported. "It is an undeniable fact that the media can make and unmake society and events on the African continent are clear manifestation of the power of the media, which we must use for the good of society," he said. Mr Tetteh expressed the Association's gratitude to Unilever for its continued sponsorship of the Best Journalist of the Year award and pledged the media's readiness to partner businesses in the country to grow so that they could create more jobs and wealth for the country's socio-economic development.

He urged businesses to advertise in the media, saying such support from corporate Ghana would enhance the frontiers of democracy, good governance, rule of law and respect for human rights. Mr Charles Cofie, Chief Executive Officer of Unilever, called on the media to provide objective reportage for election 2008 in order not to inflame passions.

"We will have to rely on you in the media to show the world that Ghana did it before and can do it again come December 2008," he said. Mr Cofie pledged the continuous assistance of Unilever to the development of journalism in the country.

The occasion was used by Unilever, which sponsored the top prize for the GJA Journalist of the Year award for 2006 to present the prize package to the winner Anas Arameyaw Anas.

For his prize Anas will go on an all expenses paid four weeks training in the United Kingdom and the United States. In total Unilever is spending 11,700 dollars as the prize package.