Ghana will go to the polls on December 7 2012 to elect a president for the fifth parliament in the fourth republic. Serious campaigning has not started but the “politics of insults’’ has become widespread in some segments of the media.
The insulting behaviors take the form of unsubstantiated claims, character assassination and blatant lies all perpetuated in the media.
It is against this backdrop that, the Office of the Public Affairs of the United States of American Embassy in Ghana has organized a two day workshop on election campaign coverage for journalists in Tamale.
The workshop brought together about twenty five journalists from the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions from both print and electronic media.
The aim of the workshop is to train journalists on how to cover election campaigns without causing any trouble.
It was facilitated by Bill Ristow, Senior Fulbright Scholar Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Ghana and an ace journalist from America Theresa Morrow.
Participants were taken through various ways on how to cover and report on elections without causing problems.
The journalists were reminded of their duty to always protect the interest of the ordinary citizen.
They were also cautioned to be wary of politicians who will want to use them to achieve their selfish political ambitions.
The journalists were also urged to stick to their watchdog role to the people. At the end certificates of participation were presented to participants.
In a related development, the United States of American Embassy has formed a partnership with the Ghana library board at a reception to commemorate “World Press Freedom Day” which comes off on May 3 and throughout the year. UNESCO this year has selected the theme as “new voices, media freedom, helping to transform societies”.
The Information Officer of the US Embassy Jeanne L. Clark who signed the memorandum of understanding in Tamale on behalf of the Embassy said this will help foster mutual relationship between Ghana and the United States of America. She also mentioned that the partnership will allow Ghana and the United States of America to freely share information under vast number of issues that affect both countries in their daily lives.
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