Private Newspaper and Online Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) says it is ready to partner the Akufo-Addo led government in implementing programmes that are aimed at alleviating poverty and promoting development in the country.
This was contained in a statement read on behalf of the President of the Association, Andrew Edwin Arthur, by the National Online news portals coordinator of PRINPAG, Jeorge Wilson Kingson, during a ceremony in Accra on Tuesday to mark this year’s World Press Freedom Day (WPFD). It was on the theme “30 years after Winhoek Declaration: Information as a Public Good”.
“As an Association of private newspaper and online newsportal owners, we have always been prepared to partner Government to propagate its programmes and policies to every nook and cranny of the country to help eradicate or reduce the alarming levels of ignorance and poverty among Ghanaians, particularly in the hinterlands of the country.
“But Mr. Chairman, much as we are ready and have opened our doors to the Government as well as given indication of our readiness to partner Government to advance the cause of the country’s development, PRINPAG regrets to state that, our efforts in this direction have not received the needed encouragement and support from government and most of its institutions, a situation that has dimmed the enthusiasm and the zeal of our members, who have always been ready to contribute their quota to Ghana’s development,” Kingson noted in the statement.
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He lamented the fact that some professional media practitioners of today have allowed themselves to be polarized and divided along political lines, a situation that has contributed immensely to the lowering of professional standards, because such people are unable to separate their political ideologies from the practice of the journalism profession.
Kingson also expressed worry over how governments over the years and the current have abandoned the Association in terms of support that would make it organize well and build the capacity of its members so they could support in building Ghana’s democracy. He highlighted the need for the government to pay serious attention to the media in the country and lend support.
It is the hope of PRINPAG that, the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) government will introduce an all-inclusive media policy that will see all media establishments in the country functioning effectively in the media space and within the framework of the law and living up to their constitutional mandate as members of the fourth estate of the realm.
Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah who delivered the keynote address at the function was worried about what he termed “pay masters who out of their interest take advantage of the covid-19 and influence the media with money”. He noted that such acts contribute to disinformation which he said should not be condoned.
The said he has written to the Minister of Finance for some tax exemptions on arts and entertainment and was sure that this will take care of the media’s interest.
Source: ghananewsonline.com.gh