Accra-Ghana, Aug 15, GNA – Mr Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo, Chairman of the National Commission has commended the Board of Directors and Management of the Ghana News Agency for taking useful steps to place the Agency in its rightful place in news gathering and circulation.
He mentioned the recruitment of staff across all Departments, the structures put in place to catapult Internally Generated funds and the upscaling of digital and technological platforms to enhance the performance of the Agency as some of the useful steps.
Mr Boafo Ayeboafo gave the commendation when he paid a day’s visit to the Agency to interact with Management to find out their performance, successes and challenges.
The visit also formed part of the mandate of the Commission to ensure that Media organisations were insulated from governmental control and with the opportunity to operate independently.
Mr Ayeboafo was accompanied by Mr M.V.V. K Demanya, a member of the Commission and Madam Paula Sanziri, Director of Administration among others.
He appealed to the management members to establish good rapport between them and staff to avoid needless anonymous letters witnessed in the past in some government Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
He said keeping in constant touch with staff in transparency to keep them abreast with happenings of the agency could serve as a trump card for their successful execution of projects and programmes and to insulate them from needless litigations.
The Chairman said approaching every issue with respect to staff could ensure perpetual harmony as bickering and backbiting would be out of the equation.
On ethics and professionalism, Mr Ayeboafo advised Journalists of the Agency to at all-time provide balanced stories as stating in the story that ‘attempts to get the other side were not successful’ could not absolve them from lawsuit.
He said although misspellings of names and designations of newsmakers were part of the abolished Criminal Libel Law, Journalists must always respect protocols that could throw them into legal doldrums.
Mr Albert Kofi Owusu, General Manager of the Agency who briefed the delegation on the performance of the Agency said the hitherto turbulent times in the agency, were now making way for some successes as Management had put in place measures to improve the fortunes of the Agency.
He said although Former President Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah established the Ghana News Agency to tell the Ghanaian and African story, leaders that came after him could not follow through the mission and vision of the national newswire, hence the challenges.
That notwithstanding, Mr Owusu said over the last two years, Management had recruited 58 staff members across the Departments and was still doing more to augment the existing numbers to achieve their organizational goals.
He said there had also been series of training programmes for the Journalists and staff of other Departments and more painstaking programmes would be rolled out through partnerships to give a facelift to the Head Office and some Regional Offices of the Agency and urged all to play their roles professionally to keep them in business.
He said the Management was also working round the clock to ensure that allowances and other emoluments of staff were paid to make them comfortable to execute their duties.
Mr V.V. K Demenya commended the GNA for churning out balanced stories, making them the referral point in terms of authentic news in the country and beyond and urged management to continue to train and re-train Journalists to be on top of Journalistic issues.
Also in attendance were Mr Joseph Baffoe, Director of Administration, Mr Samuel Asiedu Boateng, Director IT and Engineering, Mr Norbert Asenso, Director, Business, Mr George-Ramsey Benamba, Acting Director, Editorial, Mr Jonas Eshun, Head of Accounts, Mrs Barbara Dodoo, Deputy Director of Administration and Mr Mathias Amernorhu, Internal Auditor.
