Accra, Nov. 30, GNA - Journalists have been advised not to allow anybody or group of persons to influence them to act unprofessionally to detriment of the unity and development of the country.

" The work of Journalists must be characterised by truth, honesty and fair play", Mr Kofi Amponsah-Bediako, an Assistant Government Spokesperson on Social Services, told the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday. Mr Amponsah-Bediako was reacting to the revelations of Mr Ebenezer Josiah, Editor of the "National Democrat", a private newspaper, that the negative stories the paper carried about President John Agyekum Kufuor were false.

The Assistant Government Spokesperson said the assassination of the Paramount Chief of Dagbon, Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II and the serial killing of 34 women were serious issues that should under no circumstance be trivialised to score cheap political points.

Mr Amponsah-Bediako described as most despicable, the alleged planting of the stories by Mr Victor Smith, Special Aide of Former President Jerry John Rawlings, saying: "It is one of the most ugly and terrible things that could ever come from the Office of the Former President."

The "National Democrat" had been carrying stories linking the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government to the death of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani and 30 others in March 2001.

It also carried a story that accused President Kufuor of being behind the serial killing of the women in the country prior to Election 2000, which brought NPP to power.