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Three media associations have called on the government to restructure the Ministry of National Security, re-orient operatives of the institution, and to institute professional recruitment policies to ensure it recruits the right calibre of persons.
The associations are the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), Private Newspaper Printers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) and the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA).

A statement signed by the leaderships of the respective associations said: “It is the view of the leadership of the three media groups that the handlers of Ghana's National Security institute measures to weed out of the security agencies, undesired elements with barbaric and brutish tendencies, whose conduct always creates needless tension between poor civilians and the operatives of Ghana's National Security.

“It was important for the security agencies to be oriented on the intricacies of the practice of the journalism profession, one of which is to employ, in some cases, subterfuge and unorthodox means of gathering information if same is in the supreme national interest,” they added.

Brutalities

They said they had taken note of the spate of brutalities meted out to journalists such as those working with Luv FM, Whatsapp News and the most recent case of the one involving journalists working with Citi FM/Citi TV.

The statement condemned the seizure and deletion of journalistic and any other material on any recording device without court orders.

The media, it noted, was an indispensable partner in the development of the country, as well as in the consolidation of democracy while holding government to account.

It said any attempt, therefore, to cower them to stay away from carrying out those duties should be condemned in no uncertain terms.