G.I.J. Celebrates Silver Jubilee
Journalists and liberation
Mr Kojo Yankah, former Editor of the People's Daily Graphic and now Acting Director of the Ghana Institute of Journalism, has set many people wondering about what he really meant when he spoke at the end of the week- long silver jubilee celebration of the institute.
He accused past governments of using journalists to achieve their selfish political objectives. He was speaking at the Diploma and Awards ceremony which climaxed the celebration. Among his audience were: PANA delegate Mr Swaebon Conateh, Director of Information and Broadcasting and Miss Joyce Ayree, PNDC Information Secretary.
To many keen listeners, Kojo Yankah appeared to be making an indirect reference to "the war of ideology and propaganda" he vigorously pursued, when he was Graphic editor, against the Western world. He was then the mouthpiece of the government. But his "reward" was an indefinite suspension which followed an official statement that described him as professionally incompetent for "reducing to a cheap journalistic scoop the last words of a penitent man".
Kojo Yankah's suspension statement, it may be recalled, was in respect of the last words of executed ex-PNDC member, Joachim Amartey Kwei who sent L/Cpl Amedeka and others to kidnap and murder the three High Court judges and a retired Army Officer.
Kojo Yankah's pronouncement is significant when viewed against the fact that he was kicked from the Graphic Corporation at the time when the government had started "reconciliatory" moves with the U.S.A., Britain and West Germany and the other Western countries.
Information Secretary, Joyce Aryee, in her contribution admitted that the government had been strict and firm on the press. But she explained that the situation had been so because the government was "aware of its (press) potential".
GIJ students President, Ewusi Brown, appealed to the government to avoid making journalists "nervous" since the media could not offer any meaningful contribution out of such a situation. The Director of PANA, Mr Cheick Ousana Diallo, sent a solidarity message to the jubilee in which he observed that the GIJ had acquitted itself by having discharged its duty of producing men and women to serve Ghana's complex and increasingly demanding media world. He suggested a review of the GIJ's curriculum to bring it up to date with today's realities in Ghana and Africa.
At a symposium under the theme "GIJ And The African Press", the panel called for a new African journalist committed to the cause of Africanism and who can promote and defend African interest.
Mr Kwame Karikari, Acting Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation described the press as a "tool of ideological work which forms part of the intellectual arsenal of a society". Consequently, he added, journalists cannot be neutral since "to be complacent is to commit a social suicide". The press, he stressed, has a purpose in that it either leads a social cause or mischief as it plays a major role in shaping the dominant idea of a society.
Mr Karikari expressed his abhorrence for charlatans and opportunists who think freedom to insult a government is the only mark of press freedom. He invited the press to accept self-criticism and fight for their own freedom since nobody wins freedom on a silver platter.
The acting editor of the Peoples Daily Graphic, Mr Sam Clegg, pointed out the need for the press to "mobilise our people spiritually, materially and intellectually, if we are to neutralise the ever-increasing attempts to keep Africa in the throes of poverty and subservience".
Mr K B Brown, General Manager of the Ghana News Agency, disclosed that the government has given approval for work to commence on a $2.5 million UNESCO-sponsored project to turn the GNA into a resource centre for the training of African media men in news agency journalism. He called for a better interaction among the African press to reflect the needs of African society.
Ms Aryee received PANA delegate, Mr Conateh, with a call to African states to support PANA in the face of the continuous distortion of infor- mation about the continent by the "big news agencies". She expressed the hope that PANA would bridge the existing communication gap between Africa and the rest of the world.
The GIJ Silver Jubilee was fairly well-organised and attended - it was a resounding success.
The Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) established 25 years ago hit a memorable landmark early this month and among those invited to the anniversary celebrations was Mr Richard Macmillan, founding Head/tutor of the institute.
Speaking about the school in the early post-independence period. Mr Macmillan said that the political situation at the time was not the concern of the institute. Its main objective was to produce properly trained journalists who could fulfil their professional responsibilities efficiently within the mass media's role in the development process of the society.
Mr Macmillan was a war correspondent during World War II, a noted writing. Before he took up the job of broadcaster and a master of short story establishing the school on the invitation of the Ghana government, he was the Information officer of the British High Commission in Ghana. He is now 84 and runs the popular correspondent school for journalists in Becks.
The GIJ has in the 25 years of its existence produced many journalists who are now manning the country's media.
