The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has organized advocacy against corruption workshop for selected journalists in the Northern Zone of the country.

The workshop, held in Tamale, was to deepen journalists’ understanding of anti-corruption laws and to equip them with skills to guide their content development and reportage on corruption-related issues.

The engagement, which also sought to empower the journalists to join the fight against corruption and promote good governance, was under the NCCE’s Accountability, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Programme (ARAP).

With funding support from the European Union (EU), the ARAP seeks to promote good governance, accountability and transparency by helping to educate the citizenry to reduce corruption in institutions.

The workshop was on the theme: “Effective public education on environmental governance and amendment of relevant Constitutional provisions in relation to anti-corruption laws: The role of the media.”

Dr Kojo Asante, the Director of Advocacy and Policy Engagement at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), in a presentation said corruption undermined democratic governance and accountability in public offices, adding that, it led to poor delivery of public services.

Highlighting the theme, he cited some Constitutional provisions that relate to anti-corruption and required amendment and reviewal, citing Articles 78(1) and 98(2), Public Office Holders (Declaration of Assets and Disqualification) Act 1998, (Act 550), Political Parties Act, 200 (Act 574) and Chapter 24 of the Constitution, as some examples.

Dr Asante, therefore, advised media practitioners to step up efforts and play their gatekeeping and watchdog roles effectively to ensure that such provisions were reviewed to help strengthen the fight against corruption in the country.

Speaking on the topic “The Media and Effective Civic Education in Environmental Governance” Mr George Sarpong, the Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission (NMC), said corruption, challenges of rule of law, lack of accountability, asymmetry of power and visibility deficit were challenges of good governance.

He implored journalists to educate citizens to actively participate in the environmental governance process by adopting attitudes that safeguarded their surroundings.

That, he added, would contribute to a reduction in corrupt acts among individuals and improve on accountability and compliance with the rule of law.
Ms Josephine Nkrumah, the Chairperson of the NCCE, appealed to journalists to complement the efforts of the Commission to influence citizens’ change in attitude geared towards winning the fight against corruption and keeping a safe environment.

Participants pledged to use their various media to propagate issues of corruption and its effects on the country’s development.