The Executive Director of the Center for Democratic Development, CDD-Ghana has called on the media in Tamale to focus on issues and hold politicians accountable for campaign promises made to the electorate in the run-up to the December Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
He said by focusing on issues rather than personalities, the media will be championing the cause of the electorate in addition to helping to entrench the nation’s democracy. Professor Gyimah Boadi, who is also a senior lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana said by engaging in policy discussions, the media would assist Ghanaians to make informed choices by voting the right candidates into public office.

Prof. Gyimah Boadi said this at a capacity building workshop organized by CDD-Ghana for the media in Tamale. It was attended by journalists from the Northern and Upper West regions of Ghana.
Presenting a paper on “Conflict Sensitive Reporting towards Election 2008,” Mr. John Pokoo, a security expert from the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Center, urged the media to be facilitators of peace by providing factual and reliable messages in their reportage. He said the volatile political situation in the north requires that journalists in the region should be circumspect in their work, respect human rights and provide space in their reports for divergent views. He urged the journalists to cooperate with the traditional authorities, civil society groups and the judicial system to maintain peace and security in the area.
Other presenters at the workshop included Dr. Seidu Alhassan of the University of Development Studies who delivered a paper on crucial issues confronting Ghana’s economy and Mr. Theodore Dzeble, Public Affairs Officer of CDD-Ghana, who spoke on strategies for issue-based reporting.