The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, has said he is a promoter of media freedom and will not do anything to undermine it.
“I say with pride that (I assisted the late Professor Albert Adu Boahen in writing) the historic lecture which broke the culture of silence.
“It helped liberate the media (so) I am not about to change my stance now,” he said at the commencement of sitting in Accra yesterday.
Speaker Oquaye was responding to public outcry following his threat to revoke the accreditation of any parliamentary reporter who deviates from his or her core duty of covering proceedings on the floor of the House.
Professor Oquaye on Wednesday reminded parliamentary reporters that they were in the House as “guests” on his permission “because of the importance (the) House attaches to the inky profession.
“Any such deviation (of placing other happenings within Parliament above what happens on the floor) will make you an unwelcomed guests and your welcome will be dully withdrawn,” Speaker Oquaye warned.
Insisting that the press must not cover any other development in Parliament when the House is sitting, Speaker Oquaye said the decision was not to gag the media or determine to it what it should report but to ensure that the citizenry was informed about core business of the House.
His threat has received a widespread condemnation from a cross section of the Ghanaian public including the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA).
The association in a statement signed by its president, Roland Affail Monney, said the threat was “tantamount to interfering with the editorial independence of the media”
The GJA urged the House to “rather demonstrate its powers and respects its commands by directing MPs who are elected and paid by the people to perform duties for and on behalf of the people not disregarding such duties and engaging in activities within the precincts of Parliament whiles proceedings are ongoing.”
But Speaker Oquaye said his directive has been taken out of context, adding that his leadership was doing more to empower the media.
“Under my leadership, I must emphasise, and with the cooperation with the Majority and Minority Leaders, we are revising our rules so that the media will be stronger in doing their work in Parliament and for them to cover even Committee meetings.
“We are for them but they are our children and we must help and direct them to develop. That is a national duty,” Speaker Oquaye stated.
No group of people, Speaker Oquaye said, was beyond criticism “but let us do our reportage professionally. Facts are sacred but comments are free.”
Speaker Oquaye, however, admonished the leadership of both caucuses in the House to desist from engaging the media while sitting was underway.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
