General News of Friday, 5 May 1995

Source: --

President calls on Ghanaians to boycott private press

A call has gone out to Ghanaians to stop buying the publications of the private press because "each time you patronise their products, you create a market for them and lend credibility and credence to the falsehood they peddle", directs President Flt Lt. Rawlings of Ghana.

According to the Free Press newspaper, the outcry was made during a recent rally of the ruling NDC at the National Thanksgiving Service held at the Jackson Park in the Eastern regional capital - Koforidua.

The President said the use of falsehood to malign people had become a problem he would fight against in spite of the strength of the opposition that may come his way.

President Rawlings recalled that unlike Pontius Pilate who yielded to popular opinion and sanctioned Christ's death, he would not repeat the mistake but would strive to stamp out falsehood based on "jealousy, envy and negative pride".

The President, however, turned round admitting that even though such stories sometimes contained "tiny grains of truth", these had been magnified to the horror of all.

At the last count, Ghana Review established that there are 25 newspaper publications in Ghana which consisted of:

3 dailies 16 weeklies 2 bi-weeklies 4 monthlies

The Ghana govt controls two of the three dailies plus two weeklies with the private press in charge of the remainder.