THE National Media Commission (NMC) has cautioned journalists not to use the constitutional option of apologising or retracting damaging or false publication as a licence to cause damage to people.

"Whereas journalists can apologise or retract damaging or false publication, that constitutional option should not be used as a licence to cause damage only to retract", it said.

A statement signed by the chairman of the NMC, Mr Tim Acquah-Hayford, said the commission has taken a serious view of the publication in the Free Press headed, "No tears for Konadu" which put Ghanaian womanhood in general and the First Lady in particular in "an undignified light".

It said the NMC considers the story "an example of unproductive journalism and a discredit to the profession".The statement said even before the various protests were expressed, the commission had its general meeting on February 3, 1998, discussed the said publication and decided on specific actions.

Although the statement was silent on those actions, it assured the public that the commission is committed to discharging its constitutional responsibilities, including that of ensuring high standards within the media.It, however, said the commission has taken note of the apology and retraction in a subsequent issue of the Free Press.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has urged all those who have lodged complaints with the association on the said publication to wait for the Ethics/Disciplinary Committee to sit on the case and publish its findings.It said all complaints so far received have been referred to the committee for prompt action.

A release signed by the president of the association, Mrs Gifty Affenyi-Dadzie, said long before the GJA received those complaints "I had in my own capacity as a woman drawn the attention of the GJA's Ethics/Disciplinary Committee through its chairperson, Mrs Frances Ademola and secretary, Dr A. K. Bonnah-Koomson to the content of the Free Press publication."

It expressed the assurance that the GJA firmly stands by its Code of Ethics and remains committed to ensuring that its members abide by it.

In another development, Alhaji S. M. Sibidow, a veteran journalist and communications consultant has called on the National Media Commission (NMC) and the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) to take urgent and adequate measures to discourage the continuation of false and mischievous reporting in sections of the media, reeports A. B. A. Fuseini.

This, he noted, would help ensure the emergence of responsible media and thus enhance the freedom of the media to enable it play a positive leading role in sustaining the country's democratic dispensation.

Alhaji Sibidow was commenting on the persistent disrespect and malicious reports the Free Press, an Accra based weekly, has been carrying about the President, Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings and Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, the First Lady.

According to Alhaji Sibidow, the media has a crucial and positive role to play in ensuring the prevalence of the rule of law and could do this only when practitioners endeavour to be fair, pursue and publish only the truth and abide by other ethics of the profession.He reminded media practitioners not to conceive of press freedom as an unlimited or open ended liberty but a freedom which like others, ends where the rights of others begin.