Be fair, objective in reporting from Parliament — Boadu-Ayeboafoh

The Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC),  Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, has challenged the parliamentary press corps to, irrespective of their personal agenda or the stance of their media houses; present the Ghanaian public with the fair and objective happenings on the floor of Parliament.

He said this was the only way that journalists could be counted as contributing their quota to the making and sustaining of democracy in the country.

Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh, who is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, was addressing a joint session of the media and the leadership of Parliament organised by the ministry in Accra.

It was on the theme “Interrogating Parliament’s Contribution to the Consideration of Ghana’s Democracy Thus far: The Perspective of the Media”.

“Let the parliamentarian exist while we also exist, we are not there because of them, and they are not there because of us but we are all there because of Ghana,” Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh stressed.

Integrity

He noted that though Members of Parliament (MPs) complained of financial demands from constituents and that their salaries and emoluments were inadequate, they were ready to spend huge fortunes to win primaries and elections.

Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh said political parties should not reward people who fanatically contributed to the success of the party, irrespective of the integrity of that person.

He urged the parties to look for persons of conscience, integrity and willing to suffer for the good of Ghanaians to contest for the safe seats of the parties, because such people would not change their minds and deny things they had told journalists when the heat turned on them.

Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh observed that though the media at times misreport there were a lot of instances that the media had properly and adequately reported what MPs have said but because the sentiments coming from the public was not good for the MPs, they would deny ever saying that.

Show respect

The 2017 Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) Journalist of the Year, Mr Kwame Sefa Kayi, challenged MPs from both sides to stop calling themselves names on the floor of Parliament anytime a contentious issue was laid.

He said the whip system forced MPs to tow a certain line even when there were fundamental problems with an issue and wondered when there would be a majority that would not use its numbers to bulldoze its way through and a minority that would not oppose for opposition sake.

He called on Parliament to support the professional development of the Parliamentary Press Corps to enhance their work.