President cautions media

President John Dramani Mahama has cautioned the media to be fair, accurate and balanced in their reporting especially when such reporting has the potential to hurt the hard-earned reputation of people.

He was speaking with journalists in Paris, France, where he attended the Elysée Summit for Peace and Security in Africa.

President Mahama's caution to the media was in reaction to reports by the Multimedia Broadcasting Group on the issues relating to Engineers and Planners and Merchant Bank.

 “As the oldest and largest privately owned network in Ghana, Multimedia has a responsibility to strive for accuracy and fairness in its work," he said.

The Multimedia report suggested that President Mahama might have tried to stop Merchant Bank from recovering debts from the company owned by the President’s brother, Mr Ibrahim Mahama.

The Multimedia has since offered an apology and clarification.

"To that extent, the headline did not reflect the contents and import of our story, we deeply regret any inconvenience the headline might have caused to the President and the false imputations it may have conveyed.

"We have taken steps to amend the headline to align perfectly with the body of the story. "We, however, stand wholly by the contents of the story and the issues thereof," the Multimedia wrote.

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The President said the Multimedia Group had the potential to be a model of media excellence on the Ghanaian media landscape if it pursued high professional standards.

On the apology offered by the Multimedia Group for its wrong reports about him, President Mahama said it was time for government officials and all concerned Ghanaians to put the matter behind them.

He particularly asked government communicators and the Ministry of Information to put the issue behind them and accept the partial apology from the media house.

“We can’t afford to get too emotional. We have a challenging job and it is easy in some circumstances to lose one’s cool,” he said.

President Mahama urged his communication team to continue to engage positively with the media, including the Multimedia Group, to put across information on government’s policies and programmes.