The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah is advocating for unity among stakeholders to fight the growing level of intolerance in Ghana.
He said the surge in intolerance is especially creeping into the media discourse and stakeholders such as the National Media Commission (NMC), and the Ghana Journalists Association need to act.
“The growing resort to violence to express views, the growing resort to bellicose and insulting language generally in the society is creeping into the media. That’s what we have been fighting since 2022, January from the Radio Ada incident, the Radio Banya incident, through the Radio Dagbon incident and now what I expect of the GJA is to be a part of that solution. So, I think it should be clear, not efforts to take swipes at each other,” he said.
His comment is in reaction to a press statement issued by the GJA describing the Ministry of Information release on the invasion at UTV as wobbling and pale in the face of an earlier statement by the Minister when Dagbon FM was attacked by an NDC member.
But Ghana’s Information minister in response said this is not the time to apportion blames and point accusing fingers but to unite and fight the growing incidence of using violence, insults and attack to express views and concerns in media discourse.
According to Mr. Oppong Nkrumah, he personally called the IGP to inform him of the incident and to let the police intervene and deal with the issue based on a report received by the Information Ministry and further called both the station and the presenter.
“I don’t think that statement that the GJA made is wobbly. I don’t think so. I think that it is a fair statement and I don’t think anybody else who makes a similar statement has made a wobbly statement. Remember that it was I who called the IGP, that there was a report we had received. Remember that it was I who called the station saying that we were taking action and we wanted the station to also make a report. It was I who called the presenter to inquire about her safety and that of her panellists. So, what we need is for all of us to collaborate, not to attempt to score points by pointing fingers at each other,” he said.
He said for the GJA to describe his press statement as wobbling is false emphasizing that “GJA got it wrong on this one.”
“There are elements in the GJA commentary that suggest that we have described other incidents separately from how we’ve described it. It’s not true. It is factually inaccurate. If you pick all four statements that we have issued, we always tell the public the report we have received, where we have received a report of assault. We don’t change their language. We tell them that we have received a report of assault.
Where we have received a report of an attack, we tell them that we have received a report of an attack. In this incident, when we received information of alleged unauthorized entry, we told the public, as of Sunday morning, that we had received or that we received a report of alleged unauthorized entry. And we proceeded to call the police to go in and act”, he asserted.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah opined that what remains now is for the public to keep an eye on the police and encourage them to do their investigations to ensure that the persons found culpable of the act are brought to book.
Read also: Attack on UTV: Expedite action on the 16 persons arrested – PRINPAG
Source: Eric Sekyi/ATLFMNEWS
