The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey has called on media practitioners to be circumspect in their reportage describing some media reports as 'disheartening'.
According to her, journalists sometimes come out with reports which are contrary to the facts and misinform the public.
The Minister said this when the leadership of the Ghana Journalists Association, GJA as part of activities leading to its 70th-anniversary celebration, paid a courtesy call on her on Wednesday, 16 October 2019.
Addressing the leadership of the GJA she challenged the Association to sensitise media practitioners across the country to be accurate in their reportage
"The media have a role to play to ensure that we are all made aware of what we have. Sometimes, as I said, you read some reports and it’s disheartening, especially when you have, in some cases, taken pains to walk people through a certain process to where you are and then the reports come and it's totally different. A small part [of all you said] is taken and that's what is highlighted and sometimes it’s not the best''.
Mrs Ayorkor Botchway also congratulated the GJA on their 70th-anniversary celebration adding that there is no justification for any journalist to be attacked in their line of duty.
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For his part, GJA President Roland Affail Monney commended the minister for her role in uplifting Ghana's image and expressed the need to give more education to journalists to have the national interest at heart when reporting for international media.
"Our elders teach us that it is wrong, culturally, it is even demeaning to point to your family house with your left hand, and some journalists, either out of mischief or whatever, will do stories which denigrate our image as a country. I know some of these stories are rooted in ignorance and others in mischief. But in all these, we need education on the implications of the stories we do but before the education or training programmes come, we have a duty, as professionals, indeed, every journalist worth his or her salt ought to weigh the implications, think through the consequences of whatever story we do relative to the national interest," he noted.