The Editor-In-Chief of the Daily Dispatch, Mr. Ben Ephson says he sometimes regret choosing journalism as a profession whenever he reads or hears some of the elementary mistakes that are being committed by some of his colleagues.

“ I regret being a journalist and sometimes, I try to bury my head in shame when people judge the professionalism of the media, even though I am proud to have taken such a noble profession some 35 years ago”, he said.

He was speaking on the subject – ‘Evaluating the Media performance in 2008 Elections’ at a two-day workshop organized by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) in Koforidua, last Saturday.

The workshop, which was under the theme – “Towards a Freer, Fairer and a more Credible Election 2012 and beyond: Lessons, Challenges and Opportunities,” was to present post-election reflections on the 2008 elections.

The renowned pollster expressed disappointment over the downward trend of journalism in Ghana due to what he called cheap labor.

He said the onus to improve the standard of journalism and make it more attractive rested in the hands of Managers and Owners of media houses in the country, to employ reporters with high professional standard.

Though he admitted that “practice makes man perfect,” and that nobody is perfect as far as life is concerned, he said it would be unpardonable when avoidable mistakes are committed.

He also cautioned reporters to stop the use of inflammatory headlines, statements and utterances which could undermine the young democracy of the country.

The Daily Dispatch boss further charged the National Media Commission (NMC) to be proactive in the execution of its mandated obligations to check and cross-check the establishment of media houses before granting them operational license.

Source: The Chronicle

The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) has called for a decoupling of the state´s prosecution service from the Justice Ministry and well-defined rules to insulate the Attorney General´s office from any semblance of political interference. CDD-Ghana noted that the continued fusion of the Justice Ministry with the Attorney General´s office has had the impact of making all prosecutions of politicians appear politically motivated and this should be seen as a structural weakness in the country´s governance mechanisms.

Presenting a paper on the overview of political and economic governance in Ghana at a one-day participatory workshop for 60 parliamentary candidates selected from 17 constituencies of the coastal regions of Ghana, Victor Brobbey, governance and legal policy officer, CDD-Ghana, noted that the 1992 Republican Constitution created an executive branch that is far too powerful with very wide powers, but poorly defined. He stated that there is an excessive discretionary power in the hands of the president and ministers of whatever party happens to be in power, which excessive powers are invariably, ruthlessly, exercised at the expense of other primary branches of government. Mr. Brobbey said there is a glaring example of cavalier mixing of governance functions that has resulted in a serious governance deficit.

He cited Article 78[1] of the Constitution, which stipulates that majority of ministers of state shall also be members of Parliament. According to him, this provision was created between the executive and the legislature to avoid some of the inter-branch standoffs that occurred during the Third Republic.

However, this provisions has had the practical result of creating a legislature that is almost completely dominated by the executive branch as there is a clear manifestation that a member of parliament´s oversight responsibility is now tampered with by the fact that he/she is looking to ultimately assume a ministerial position. As such, all MP´s are less likely to criticize their own party and their own government, as they recognize that being overly critical will impair their chances of being ministers. This, the Legal policy officer argues, has among others, resulted in the lack of political will to address corruption which has become an embarrassing issue for all. He, therefore, called on Parliament to support the three agencies mandated to investigate corruption in Ghana: CHRAJ, the SFO and the Commercial Crimes Unit of the CID to ensure that they are well resourced and free from political interference.

On his part, Dr. Bashir Koray of the Attorney General´s Department, Accra, acknowledged the fact that persons with disabilities are also members of society and have the rights to remain within their local communities. He said they should receive the support they need within the ordinary structure of education, health, employment and social services. The preparatory workshop was a prelude to the parliamentary candidates´ debate forum being organized by CDD-Ghana. According to a programme officer of the centre, Harrison Kofi Belley, CDD-Ghana´s interest in organizing the candidates´ forums is to help make the 2008 election campaign relatively more issue-based and less personality-driven.

SOURCE: The Heritage, Wednesday November 12th 2008