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President Commends African Media |
| President J. A. Kufuor, has commended African media practitioners for their hard work and asked them to play a more crucial role in the continent's quest to achieve good governance. |
In the scheme of ensuring good governance, accountability and participation in constitutional rule as well as “information dissemination and appraisal are critical”.the President said.
The occasion was this year’s CNN/Multichoice African Journalist Awards ceremony held in Accra on Saturday night. Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Rugoho-Chin’ono became the proud winner of this year’s African Best Journalist Award.
Ghana’s Israel Laryea of JOY FM was adjudged the best in Radio General News Reporting. Daniel Nkrumah of the Daily Graphic was short-listed among the 23 finalists but missed an award by a whisker. He was selected as one of two nominees but the final decision went in favour of Emmanuel Maya of the Sun newspaper of Nigeria.
President Kufuor charged media practitioners to discharge their duties with an exceptional sense of responsibility to promote the welfare and proper development of African societies and nations.
He said the exercise of exceptional responsibility on the part of journalists required that they placed the interest of societies first and in proper perspective of their evolution and development.
“Thus practitioners must be well educated, informed and circumspect,” he stated.
For that reason, he commended the institution of the CNN/Multichoice African Journalists Awards for the development of journalism and encouragement of journalists to aspire to the highest level of professionalism.
President Kufuor said the overriding challenge facing Africa was good governance, which, he explained, was all- inclusive participation in the constitutional running of the various societies on the basis of transparency and accountability.The well-attended ceremony was spiced with songs and dance by Amandzeba Nat Brew and his group.
He said rapidly improving media technology, which had already captured the world in its network, ensured instantaneous global reporting of views and issues everywhere, including Africa.
Media practitioners, he noted, who were drivers of the media technology had come to wield inordinate influence and power in the affairs of mankind and the evolution of the global village.
For that reason, the President said media practitioners must be recognised, made self-aware and somehow accountable.
He called for the establishment of institutional and regulatory systems and framework, including training, to guarantee uniform values, standards and disciplines of professional practice, with requisite sanctions for lapses.
The Vice-President and Managing Director of CNN International, Mr Tony Maddox, who also addressed the gathering, said the competition had grown in terms of scope and in quality.
“The CNN takes its responsibility as the world’s leading news broadcaster very seriously,” he said, adding, “As we salute the fine journalists who are this year’s award finalists, we also seek to support and promote journalistic excellence in our coverage of the continent”.
The well-attended ceremony was spiced with songs and dance by Amandzeba Nat Brew and his group.
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