Media Tasked To Promote Peace During Assembly Elections

The National Peace Council (NPC), has appealed to media practitioners to be circumspect in their reportage on conflict issues to promote sustained national unity and cohesion for continuous development. Mr George Amoh, Director of Conflict Resolution and Management of the NPC said journalism was a noble profession, which aimed at building and transforming society positively, and reporting on conflict issues demanded special skills and knowledge on the part of journalists because of their sensitive nature. Mr Amoh was addressing media practitioners in Tamale on Tuesday during a two-day training workshop on conflict reporting on the upcoming District Assembly Elections, organized by the NPC with support from Ibis, an NGO. He said journalists must always be reminded that people�s emotions and sensibilities were at stake during conflicts and that reports in the media would either calm or inflame passions. The Director observed that the mass media played an important role in conflict management, because it had a powerful influence on how people view the world, and stressed that news reports could be the only source of information to the public, and therefore urged journalists to be partners in conflict resolution. Mr Amoh stated that Act 818 that set up the Commission envisages the setting up of a peace fund for the development of peace initiatives, and noted that such a fund would soon be set up to assist peace actors in the country, including journalists to perform their roles more professionally. He explained that the NPC was set up in 2011 with the mandate to facilitate and develop mechanisms for conflict prevention, management and resolution to build sustainable peace in the country. Mr Damma Salifu, Programme Manager of Initiative on Conflict Resolution (ICR) who facilitated the training workshop, implored journalists to give of their best, by being accurate, factual and credible with their reportage. He noted that journalists were quick in picking early signals on conflicts, but warned that it was dangerous to report on such issues until being too sure of the signals and that appropriate state institutions could be informed of the signal to avert conflicts. Mr Salifu rated journalists of the northern sector of 65 to 70 percent in performance, and urged them to continue improving on the quality of their works saying, �Media owners must employ qualified professionals to do quality work�.