Ala Adjetey rebukes National Accreditation Board
Accra (Greater Accra) 17 January 2002 - The Speaker of Parliament, Peter Ala Adjetey on Wednesday said the media should be left alone to do their work according to the dictates of the profession.
The media would gleefully pursue the controversial and the unusual in making their news, but it was, however, wrong if they did not present the contrary or the opposing view in their reportage, he said.
The Speaker made the remark when Mrs Anna Nyamekye, NPP Jaman, on a point of order said the Ghana Television coverage of the opening ceremony of Parliament on Tuesday was one-sided.
She said although the Speaker had ruled yesterday that the Minority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin should have not addressed or recognised the presence of strangers in the House yet that aspect, which the Minority hailed was rather captured and screened by GTV.
Mrs Nyamekye said the report did not show the aspect of the Speaker's ruling that the recognition was not right under circumstances and, therefore had the potential of misinforming the public.
Mr Ala Adejtey said Parliament could do nothing about the complaint since the Media was doing its work by looking for the controversial and the unusual.
He said what the GTV showed on Tuesday was the true reflection of what happened in the House and the television cameraman captured it right but it would only be wrong if the other side of the story were not told.
He said, if at the Tuesday's opening of Parliament, while he was inspecting the guard of honour and somebody threw a pineapple at him, the Speaker, that would have been a major news item on BBC but since everything went successfully and peacefully they did not see it as news worthy.
"Once we have agreed to go as a free society allowing for the freedom of the press we should admit that those are some of the things we have to tolerate and cope with."
Just as the Speaker had made this exposition, Dr Mustapha Ahmed, NDC-Ayawaso East, asked for direction as to what a member should do if during a phone-in to a radio programme a caller made a derogatory statement against Parliament.
Dr Ahmed said there was a caller to an FM station saying that the day the Minority walked out of Parliament during the debate on the Reconciliation Bill they came back to the House when it was announced that the members should come back for their travelling allowances. He said this was a big lie and contempt of the House.
Mr Ala Adjetey said it would be ridiculous for him as a Speaker to give instructions to members as to what to do in such cases since the law and the standing orders were clear as to the rights and privileges of a parliamentarian.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 17 January 2002 - Mr Peter Ala Adjetey, Speaker of Parliament, on Wednesday ordered investigations to find out why the National Accreditation Board (NAB) had operated all this while without a Legislative Instrument (LI) as demanded by law.
"The breach of the law is obvious in this case. I refer the matter to the Committee on Education to invite the Minister to explain the breaches and why no action has been taken to comply with the law."
Mr Kosi Kedem, NDC-Hohoe South, had delivered a statement questioning the legitimacy of the operation of the NAB. "Despite the fact that the NAB started awarding accreditation since 1995, the Minister has not thought it fit to bring the necessary Legislative Instrument to Parliament, as demanded by PNDC L.317, in order to give legitimacy to the accreditation exercise."
He said the NAB had "illegally" awarded accreditation to many public and private institutions and had determined fees ranging from 200,000 to 20 million cedis over the years.
"This action is in clear violation of clause 16 of the NAB law. This violation is likely to result in creating chaos and lowering academic and professional standards in the tertiary educational sector."
He said in order to give full effect to the provisions of the law, the Minister of Education, in consultation with the Board was required to make regulations by L.I. for its operation.
"The LI will spell out the type of accreditation to be granted to institutions, the procedure for the conduct of accreditation exercises and the fees to be charged for services rendered by or on behalf of the Board"
Mr Kedem asked the Minister to do the right thing on time or NAB should be stopped from exercising the power of accreditation.
GRi../
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