Parliament, NTC to deepen ties
The head of the newly created Media Relations Directorate of Parliament, David Sabastian Damoah, has called on the Editor of the Ghanaian Times, David Agbenu.
The visit is part of measures taken by the new directorate to further deepen the relationship between the legislature and the New Times Corporation (NTC), publishers of the Ghanaian Times and the Spectator, in particular and the media in general.
Leading his lieutenants to the premises of the NTC in Accra on Thursday, Mr Damoah said the decision to embark on the media tour was in line with the new directorate’s mandate to give parliament a good and positive image.
He said over the years, the primary mandate of parliament to make laws and act as an oversight over the other arms of government had been misconstrued to developmental role.
As a result of this decades-old misconception, he said his outfit was going to embark on initiatives not to only educate the citizenry on the mandate of their MPs but to bring the legislature closer to the people and the buy-in of the media would be critical.
The policies, he itemised, included the Speaker and editors fora, where from time-to-time, editors would engage the Speaker and leadership and management of parliament, a yearly capacity building programme for parliamentary reporters and the development of a media policy to streamline activities of the various media houses that report from parliament.
Parliament, Mr Damoah said, would be taking its openness a notch higher with the promulgation of new Standing Orders to allow members of the general public have access to the committees and the media would be critical in that endeavour to ensure that accurate information was churned out.
“We know parliament has a strong relationship with Times and we are very happy working with you. We believe that we can consolidate that relationship as we move forward and at the end of the day, we can deepen that relationship and bring parliament closer to the people,” he said.
Mr Agbenu, on his part welcomed the initiative and said the Ghanaian Times and NTC stand ready to deepen the relationship and collaborate with the new directorate to ensure the right information from parliamentary was disseminated to the public.
In his view, the decision to have an annual capacity building programme for reporters would go a long way to equip reporters with better understanding of the intricacies of parliament and how to communicate same to the public.
“Anytime there’s a new parliament, there’s orientation for members but same is not extended to reporters. Without any training and orientation, the person will not know what you want and how it should be reported but if reporter is taken through orientation and training, he or she will be able to report what you want and accurately,” Mr Agbenu said.
According to the Ghanaian Times Editor, the criticality of parliament to the country’s democracy could not be underestimated and every effort to bring it closer to the people would be supported by the Corporation.
He entreated the team from the directorate to make themselves “readily available for us to get access to you and if we have access to you, our work will be easy and accuracy won’t be a problem.”.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
