GRi in Parliament 30 - 10 - 2001
Job vacancies...Parliament needs Public Relations Unit
Aburi (Eastern Region) 30 October 2001 - The Parliamentary Service Board has approved the establishment of a public relations unit to improve the House's public image and bring it closer to the people.
Peter Ala Adjetey, Speaker of Parliament, who announced this at the weekend, said Parliament was considering introducing guidelines for reporters on coverage of the House and establish a mutual relationship with the media to deepen democratic practices.
Opening a two- day workshop for the Parliamentary Press Corps at Aburi on "Promoting Ghana's democracy through efficient parliamentary coverage", Mr Ala Adjetey said reportage on parliamentary activities serves a useful purpose in conveying the substance of debates and discussions to the people. "The press is therefore the standard vehicle for the dissemination of public opinion".
Quoting former Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, the Speaker said: "Freedom, like everything else and more than everything else, carries certain responsibilities and obligations, and if these responsibilities and disciplines are lacking then it is no freedom, it is the absence of freedom".
He asked journalists to be mindful of the fact that freedom of expression has its limitation under the law. "Article 164 of the Constitution provides that freedom of the press is subject to laws that are reasonably required in the interest of national security, public order, public morality and for the purposes of protecting the reputations, rights and freedom of other persons.
Mr Ala Adjetey reminded the press that Parliament has the right to punish those who deliberately distort or malign others through false publications according to its Standing Orders.
He said Parliament has restrained itself from stretching the law on this form of reporting being contemptuous of Parliament but that did not mean that the law did not exist.
The Speaker cautioned against sensationalism saying if the media did not do away with that and showed responsibility, "the opportunity of a widened access to information which the Right to Information Bill seeks to achieve, may be dealt a severe blow".
He said some journalists "do not want to authenticate stories before publication" although the opportunity exists for them to do so.
Mr Peter Schellschmidt, Resident Director of FES said the foundation was supportive of the seminar (workshop) because it would create a forum to address "the old problem of deep mistrust that seems to prevail between politicians and the media".
"Mutual trust and mutual respect for each other's role and function is necessary pre-requisite for a healthy relationship".
Mr Schellschmidt said the world would judge Parliament on the basis of the perceptions of the Parliamentary Press Corps.
The workshop sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) was attended by 22 journalists from the both print and electronic media.
GRi../
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Parliament urged to initiate debate on
resourcefulness.
Kumasi (Greater Accra) 30 October 2001 - Professor Kwasi Andam, Dean of the School of Engineering, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has called on Parliament to consider the problem of industrialisation and to initiate a national debate on the issue.
He noted that the greatest challenge facing the country was industrialisation and said industrialists have been invited to finance indigenous discoveries and to make technology available for development adding that, "it appears none is coming to help".
There was, therefore, the need for the debate on resourcefulness to take advantage of talents lying waste in the country, he said. "When inventions took place in United Kingdom (UK) and America, a national agenda was put in place and we now know how they immensely benefited from them."
Professor Andam was speaking at the 21st Annual Charity and Technological Exhibition of the Kristo Asafo otherwise called Christ Reformed Church in Kumasi, on Sunday, in aid of the needy.
Hundred maxi-bags of maize, foodstuffs, livestock, vegetables and other food items all valued at about 125.2 million cedis produced from various farms of the Church throughout the country were distributed to charity homes, educational institutions, prisons, hospitals and the public.
Works of the Founder of the Church, Apostle Dr Kwadwo Safo, ranging from herbal medicine, electronics, shoe-making machines etc were displayed at the fair attended by thousands of people.
Professor Andam asked the Ministries of Works and Housing, Energy, Trade and Industry to establish a secretariat to address the problem of transferring inventions of indigenous Ghanaians.
GRi../
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