The Ministry of information has called on relevant stakeholders to support the National Media Commission (NMC) with funding so that it can adequately regulate the interests of journalists in the country.
According to the ministry, the commission lacks funding to enable it carry out its regulatory role as it should hence the call for support to enable NMC give more protection to the media.
Addressing the media on the sidelines of a forum organised by the Media Foundation for West Africa on Media professionalism and safety of journalists in Ghana, the Deputy Minister of Information, Fatimatu Abubakar asked all stakeholders to commit to supporting the cause.
“We are willing to offer some level of support to the office and keep it running, but I would like to use this opportunity to reach out to stakeholders in the country and outside Ghana who have the capacity to assist the NMC with funding to run the office [to help] because perhaps if they had more resources, they would be more inquisitorial in their approach,” she said.
She further urged journalists to speak up when their security is being threatened in the course of their duties.
According to her, although the Commission was put in place as part of efforts by the government to protect journalists in the country, journalists fail to report cases of violations to the commission for legal actions to be taken against culprits.
“For the past one year, we have been able to set up an office for the coordinated mechanism on the safety of journalists. As you heard from the National Media Commission, journalists do not even come there to find out processes of what is happening there so that in line of their duty, when there is such violation, they will go there for redress,” she said.
The forum was attended by relevant stakeholders such as the Ghana Journalists Association, Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association, Ghana Institute of Journalism, among others.