Reflect On Your Performance � Kwabena Adjei Urges Media

Media practitioners are to reflect on their performance in order to know their shortfalls and make amends to enhance the country�s development, the leader and founder of the Reformed Patriotic Democrat (RPD), Mr Kwabena Adjei, popularly called �Bambata�, has suggested. Speaking to the Daily Graphic on World Press Freedom Day, he observed that a number of media establishments, especially radio stations, out of impunity, used abusive language on their airwaves and denigrate the integrity of high profile persons, including the President. He said such establishments, hiding under the cloak of press freedom, engaged in unprofessional conducted and, in the process, slow down the pace of development. In his view, the society had continued to protect and safeguard the interest of journalists at all times, saying �such gesture, should be reciprocated by adhering to their ethical standards and professionalism�. Mr Adjei argued that press freedom could be guaranteed if journalists and media practitioners acted responsibly in the best interest of democracy and the rule of law. He said, the country needed journalists and media practitioners who were imbued with a sense of concern for others and would also publish the truth rather than journalists who were just interested in monetary gains and would publish or say anything to pollute the public. Mr Adjei called on the National Media Commission and the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) to set up a monitoring unit to check abuses in the media landscape in order to maintain high journalistic standards. He, however, commended other journalists and media practitioners who had lived above reproach and urged them to sustain it. On the election petition pending at the Supreme Court, Mr Adjei also advised journalists and the media practitioners to be circumspect in their utterances and allow the court to work and come out with its rulings. He said, some journalists and media practitioners from both the electronic and the print media had taken a stand, making their own decisions and were even pre-empting judgment, sometimes to the extent of insulting some of the lawyers. He, however, noted that though his party endorsed President Mahama, he had decided not to comment on the case because it was still in court.