Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalist Association, William Nlanjerbor Jalulah is appealing to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), through the National Media Commission (NMC), to allow the Upper East Regional Police Command engage directly with the media in the region over security concerns relating to the Bawku conflict.
Recently, it was communicated by the leadership of the Ghana Police Service that all communication on security matters across all 16 regions were to be communicated to the media and public at the national level. The new directive departed from the initial arrangement where Regional Public Affairs Officers of the Ghana Police Service could directly relay official information to the media.
Mr. Jalulah who doubles as the General Manager of A1 Radio, was of the opinion that if a special dispensation was granted to the media in the Upper East Region, it would help in the reporting of security matters, particularly those in connections to conflicts in the Upper East Region, properly.
He made the appeal when the Executive Secretary of the NMC, George Sarpong and Chairman of the NMC, Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafo held a meeting with some journalists and Upper East Regional Media Advisory Committee in Bolgatanga.
“The directive was that they [the police] should no longer communicate with the media directly on issues in the region. At the national level, the Ghana Journalist Association issued a statement calling for the reversal of that directive but it was not adhered to. As a result, we are having challenges.”
“We are here talking about Bawku and that as journalists, we should not report hearsay. The police is one important part when it comes to conflict management and in conflict reporting, you would just have to be very balanced. Now, if you go onto social media, you would see a lot of banter between groups that are purporting to be belonging to either side and they write a lot of things. Sometimes, when we also hear that there are renewed clashes and you want to get information, the police cannot confirm or otherwise and so you are torn between what you see on social media and what you hear. The biggest problem of it all is that you cannot get confirmation or otherwise from the police because they wouldn’t talk to you and when you call, they refer you to Accra,” he said.
Mr. Jalulah insisted that should journalists continue to report properly, the security issues in the Upper East Region, then the Police would have to reconsider its position on the matter.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
