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GJA Cautions Journalists over hasty reportage on chieftaincy matters

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journalistsTHE UPPER East Regional chapter of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has admonished media practitioners in the region to be extra circumspect and do diligent cross checking before reporting on a chieftaincy dispute currently brewing in the Bolgatanga Traditional Area.

Some media reports on the matter were said to have potential repercussions on the dispute and attempts to resolve it. Just this week, the Regional House of Chief convened an emergency meeting to respond to some media reports and also, explain attempts it was putting in place to resolve the matter.

The chiefs also used the meeting to remind media practitioners to be cagey of the complexity of chieftaincy matters which they said could not be solved in the media. Rather, such matters, they said could only be addressed through dialogue by appropriate authorities such as the house of chiefs and Regional Security Council.

At a meeting held in Bolgatanga on Thursday, with some journalists and security agencies including the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Immigration Service and Ghana National Fire Service, Mr. Eric Kojo Amoh, Regional Chairman of GJA, told his colleagues, to avoid people who would want to use them for their unbridled interest by claiming to be giving them information on the chieftaincy matter.

He urged media practitioners to use your professional discretion to ensure their publications did not bring about conflict stressing that, should anything occurred, anybody could be affected one way or their other.

According to him, some individual parties in the dispute were ready to put their lives on the line to get what they wanted but that should not be fueled by media reportage.

Mr. Raymond Avedigah of the Ghana Immigration Service, Mr. Alex Asamoa-Frepong of the Ghana Police Service and Mr. Albert Ayamga of the Ghana National Fire, represented the Regional Security Council.

They also advised media practitioners to first inform the Police whenever there were any disturbances before they published or broadcast it.

Some reporters lamented over how their editors sometimes mounted pressures on them to file reports on such issues whenever they broke out. This, they blamed on rivalry and competition among media houses which sometimes created problems for they the reporters.

Some of them cited instances where their editors relied on social media reports and phone calls from so-called eyewitnesses which ended up putting they the reporters’ lives under threat because local people would not understand that not all reports used by a media house necessary came from its reporters on the ground.

By: William Nlanjerbor JALAULAH, Bolgatanga
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