Sulemana Briamah, Executive Director, Media Foundation for West Africa
• Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has called on Journalists to read extensively on the Right to Information Law to be able to ask critical questions
• He said being abreast with the law equips Journalists to know who and which kind of questions to ask at what time
• He also said the MFWA will ensure that platforms are made available for the media to be able to have access to the law at all times but cannot force Journalist to read
Sulemana Briamah, Executive Director for the Media Foundation for West Africa has stated that journalists must cultivate the attitude of educating themselves on the Right to Information law to be able to explain it further to the general public.
He said the law might have been passed but journalists not being abreast with what the law says and means will be a challenge.
Speaking in an interview with the media, he said journalists must read the law and understand it to help equip them in doing their job properly.
“Every Journalist does know that there is a law in place but what I think is lacking is how Journalists need to educate themselves about the law. Journalists need to read the law to have a better understanding of how they can use the Law to do the journalism that they are supposed to do and that is what we are trying to complement. We can only help, we can only contribute to the quota, we cannot force Journalist to read. What is critical is that journalists must read, they must ask questions if they have any concerns and of course, some journalists may be lawyers but the majority of us are not and we will therefore sometimes need education on the part of lawyers and that is what we are doing, this forum is part of the processes to help journalist understand the law better,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lawyer and media practitioner Samson Lardy Anyenini has called the media to plan its programmes chronologically and not to rush them.
He said the news is to educate and inform and there is a need for the media to plan towards it well before executing it to make an impact in society.
He said the media is in hurry to break the news rather than going further to find all the angles to it before breaking it.
“The bigger problem is the Ghanaian media doesn’t seem to largely plan the news. Planning the news shouldn’t take investigative journalism to plan the news. Deal with the story to the extent that you at that moment because various news will deal with and you don’t want to do that, deal with it to the extent that you know, don’t try and project things that you don’t know, then after that take your time and follow the story through and that is where you make the application for the information. Don’t rush it, get the information right,” he said.