Don’t surrender to intimidation–CPP urges journalists

The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has urged journalists never to surrender to the threats and intimidation of people in government in their quest to expose the ills in the society.

The party said journalists and their media houses would do a great disservice to the nation “if they preferred to stay silent on state officials who will stop at nothing to cow everyone into submission.

“We need quality journalism to partner the government in its effort to move Ghana beyond aid as revolutionary journalism forms part of the team of fighters to secure us our independence,” James Kwabena Bomfeh Jnr, the acting General Secretary of the CPP, said in a statement  he signed and issued to mark this year’s World Press Freedom Day.

Mr Bomfeh also emphasised the need for media practitioners to learn the rules governing their calling and practice, and the power of the press to do good was great but the power to do evil was even greater and immense.

The statement said for the journalism profession to attain its deserved height, journalists must be above the “vague and unrealistic claim of neutrality”.

“There cannot be neutrality between the oppressor and the oppressed, the corrupt and the victim of corruption, between the exploiter and the exploited, the traitor and the betrayed,” it said.

The statement said journalists must see “what is right or wrong, just or unjust and make the effort to take sides with the good”.

It said regarding the conduct of journalists, there is the need for proper regulation of the conduct of practitioners and “humankind by nature may stray even in the noblest of thoughts if unchecked”.

“We expect to see the National Media Commission become an authority with more power to bite and restrain erring journalists, the press should not be allowed to hide under the cover of press freedom to cause irreparable damage to the dignity of innocent citizens,” the statement said.

-myjoyonline.com