Tema-Ghana, July 28, – Ms. Mary Ama Kudom-Agyeman, Executive Director, Media Platform on Environment and Climate Change (MPEC), has encouraged journalists to conduct themselves appropriately, respecting themselves and the stakeholders from whom they seek information for public consumption.
She was speaking at the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Industrial News Hub Dialogue Platform and said acquiring information from stakeholders was very difficult even with the availability of the Right to Information Act, hence the need for the journalist to be tactical in pursuing what they want.
Ms. Kudom-Agyeman who is a seasoned journalist lamented that certain attitudes portrayed by some journalists in their attempts to get information for their stories and articles were very unfortunate and uncultured, which tends to degrade the profession.
“Even though we have the Right to Information Act, all the institutions, especially public institutions, still have strict orders. Previously, it wasn’t like that, and then sometimes it’s from us, the journalists,” she stated.
She encouraged journalists to also respect people’s decisions to speak off-record without bringing it into the public domain, stressing that it was very inappropriate and unacceptable for journalists to report on issues they have been alerted not to bring out to the public.
She added that it was of high importance that journalists endeavour to keep the standards of the profession high and do good reportage on information handed to them to convince stakeholders to always be willing to give them the information needed.
The Executive Director of MPEC said “Getting information from them requires a lot of patience and tact; at times journalists can be disrespectful; I met one, and I was shocked”.
She added that journalists could visit the official websites of institutions to cite press releases for their stories without any problem.
“Even if you don’t meet an individual there to take it to, you can cite it, but of course still read around and understand what you have to do,” she said.
