Koforidua, April 23, GNA - The Eastern Region Branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) is demanding an apology from the Regional Minister, Dr Kwasi Akyem Apea-Kubi for insulting media practitioners in the Region on Tuesday April 19, 2011.

A statement Bertha Badu-Agyei, Secretary of the Association, signed on Saturday condemned the conduct of Dr Apea-Kubi and pointed out to him that he needed the support of the media to succeed as a Regional Minister.

It said Journalists in the Region were qualified professionals, who had worked with Dr Apea-Kubi's predecessors, who were civilised and cultured enough to tolerate some of their mistakes, since media practitioners were but humans.

The Association said it recognised the right of the Regional Minister to fair and impartial coverage but the mistakes in reportage, which he complained about, did not warrant the tantrums of last Tuesday since there were avenues to rectify such errors. The statement said the Association would no longer tolerate any harassment or intimidation of any media personnel and demanded that Journalists assigned to cover the programmes of the Regional Minister be treated with respect and dignity.

It appealed to Journalists in the Region to exercise restraint while the Leadership of the Association sought amicable settlement. Dr Apea-Kubi, much unlike astute politicians, dared the media while reacting to a story he claimed to be untrue when he obliged to a media briefing at the end of a day's tour of the Akuapem North District last Tuesday.

Giving the background to the verbal attack the Association stated that when the Regional Minister was about to start his tour, the Eastern Regional Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Bismark Tawiah-Boateng demanded that one Michael Akrofi, a Reporter of Peace FM, an Accra-based radio station, should not join the Press Corps covering it.

His reason was that Mr Akrofi did not present the correct facts when he covered a previous meeting of NDC, but Mr Akrofi ignored him. When the Regional Minister's entourage got to Obosomase and Mr Tawiah-Boateng saw Mr Akrofi he again demanded that he should get off the tour because he wanted to destroy the NDC by the way he had been reporting on issues affecting the Party in the Region.

The confrontation made supporters of NDC, who were around to make uncomplimentary remarks about the media so the Press Corps decided to withdraw its services but the District Chief Executive, Mr George Opare-Addo intervened and pleaded with the media personnel to rescind their decision. Mr Tawiah-Boateng apologised for his actions. The statement said at the end of the tour, the Corps requested for an interaction with Dr Apea-Kubi to clarify some of the issues that came up during the tour and he obliged, but instead of the briefing he decided to launch a verbal attack on Journalists in the country.