A GNA Feature by Boakye-Dankwa Boadi

Accra, Aug. 15, GNA - Our Elders say one should exercise a lot of circumspection whenever one attempted to find fault with others. This is because anytime one pointed a finger at another person three of the fingers would be pointing at one.

It appears Kwame Okoampa Ahoofe, Jr., PhD. did not benefit from this wisdom of our Elders or that he just decided to take a swipe at the Ghana News Agency in his article;

"Contract Killings" "Assassination" "Murders" - Stop this abuse of language!

Kwame wrote: ".as it were, the Ghana News Agency represents the official voice of Ghana to the outside world, the so called International Community. And so the GNA is expected to be staffed, at least in theory, by the proverbial cream of Ghanaian journalism. And if after a half-century of continuous operation this is only what Ghana has by way of professional artistry, to show the outside world, then, indeed, God ought to have mercy on us all!"

One would readily admit that GNA stories sometimes carry mistakes but News Editors of various media houses would bear witness to the fact that anytime such mistakes slip through GNA sends correction. A typical correction takes this form: "Herewith corrected repetition of "NSOC 12" slugged "Man Murder" due to grammatical errors."

So GNA is up to its task of showing "professional artistry" but being a human institution these mistakes would continue to recur. Now let us go back to the particular case in point. Kwame belongs to the Old School just as this Writer. However, the difference is that while Kwame is a classroom teacher this Writer is a practising journalist and also a part-time lecturer in journalism.

According to the Old School, the word "murder" is used for mere mortals while "assassinate" is reserved for kings, queens and top politicians or prominent persons - check Websters New World Dictionary on Power CD.

However, the New School does not differentiate between the usages of these two words. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2003 Deluxe Edition CD-ROM writes: "assassinate" - (1) to injure or destroy unexpectedly and treacherously. (2) to murder by sudden or secrete attack usually for impersonal reasons. Synonyms: see kill.

Now with this new knowledge one hopes that Kwame would revise his thoughts about GNA.