Mr. Mustapha Abdul Hamid, the Minister-designate for Information, on Thursday assured that government would respect the country’s Constitution which granted unfettered freedom to the media to do their work without any form of censorship.
He said the Ministry would commit part of the Media Development Fund in building the capacity of media practitioners in the country.
‘‘My vision for the Ministry of Information is to position it as a lead government organisation in providing accurate, timeous and truthful information to the citizenry, and also to collect feedbacks for informing government’s decisions on the governance processes, ’he said.
Mr. Hamid, a former spokesperson for President Nana Akufo-Addo, gave the assurance when he appeared before Parliament’s Appointments Committee, on Thursday, for vetting,
He argued that local media practitioners should not pay accreditation before covering public events, however, he justified that foreign journalists should pay a facilitation fee of GHc50.00 to support the Ministry in preparing their documents which aided their movements to certain parts of the country.
Addressing the challenges facing the only State wire-service, the Ghana News Agency, the nominee assured that on assumption of office as a minister, he would assess the condition of the Agency and provide the necessary support.
With regard to the relevance of the Ministry he was nominated to head in view of the proliferation of information through various social media platforms, he answered in the affirmative and explained that it would enable them to provide accurate information to the citizenry on government’s programmes and also receive feedbacks.
He observed that the Information Services Department which was the bedrock of the Ministry was faced with resource-constraints and assured that his outfit would re-equip the Department to deliver on its mandate because he believed in the capacity of the personnel there.
With regard to the question of completing the final phase of the digital migration, he gave the assurance that the Ministry would collaborate with other sister ministries to meet the September deadline for digital migration.
Commenting on the current state of the Ghana Publishing Company and measures the Ministry would put in place to reinstate it, Mr. Hamid said the Company was not performing as expected because it lacked the necessary equipment to be competitive on the market, therefore, the Ministry would re-tool it and appeal to other ministries to give them contracts in order to bring them back on their feet.
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