Media practitioners have been urged to safeguard the media space ahead of Ghana’s upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in December this year. Vera Abena Addo, Programs Officer for the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), made this admonition during a two-day capacity-building workshop for journalists in Kumasi, the Ashanti region.
Miss Vera Addo emphasized the crucial role of the media in ensuring peaceful, free, and fair elections and urged journalists to uphold professional ethics, accuracy, and impartiality in their reporting.
“The 2024 election is highly competitive, and for us to have a more credible, transparent, and efficient system, we will need journalists who are at the center of the electoral reforms to support the process. Reporting on election activities could either result in a peaceful election or cause confusion or conflict through the media. Therefore, if the media understand their role, then they will be more mindful,” she stated.
With funding from the European Union (EU), the workshop was part of a project aimed at promoting the implementation of electoral reforms to enhance the credibility, transparency, and peacefulness of Ghana’s 2024 general elections.
Broadcast journalist and private legal practitioner, Samson Lardy Anyenini, urged journalists to be well-informed about the legislation surrounding the election to enable them to properly inform the public.
“Look out for misinformation and disinformation; empower yourselves with knowledge of the legislation around the election so that when people are errant, you can point it out to them,” he admonished.
In light of the existence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission (NMC), George Sarpong, cautioned the media to be circumspect and validate information before disseminating it “because, in the coming election, we are likely to have all these automated systems, either deployed by political parties or by international malign actors, interfering in the electoral processes.”
In total, a maximum of 70 journalists were selected across the country, with 35 participants per zone (Northern and Southern). The training was supported by the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) and the Affirmative Action Coalition.
Source: A1radioonline.com | 101.1Mhz | Joshua Asaah | Kumasi | Ghana
