By Iddi Yire
Accra, Jan 22, GNA – The Government is poised to restructure the Ghana News Agency (GNA) and the Information Services Department (ISD) to empower them to deliver more effectively on their mandates.
President John Dramani Mahama said the Government needed to create a certain synergy and modernise those two state organisations to enhance news and information flow.
“One of the things that remains to be done is to bring the Information Services Department under the Presidency and modernise that organisation from a civil service organisation into a modern organisation that gives guaranteed information flow to the public in respect of whatever government is doing,” he said.
“The days of the cinema van is gone. Now we have all kinds of new instruments of communication. That Department must be reformed.”
President Mahama stated this on Wednesday when Madam Esther Ambah Numaba Cobbah, the President, Institute of Public Relations (IPR), Ghana, paid a courtesy call on him at the Flagstaff House in Accra.
She led a delegation of IPR Ghana to congratulate President Mahama on his election victory.
The President said restructuring the ISD would enable it to serve as a good platform for Government’s communication in terms of making as much information available as possible to the public.
As the Government planned to restructure the two organisations, IPR Ghana, as a professional body, would have a lot to weigh in in terms of how those objectives would be achieved.
The President assured of freedom of expression under his administration as guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution, especially Chapter 12.
That, he said, had been one of the most progressive provisions in any constitution that guaranteed the flow of information and freedom for people to express themselves, which was critical to the work of communication professionals.
“And so, of course, the government will continue to guarantee that freedom. And I know that under the last administration, there were a lot of issues to do without being downgraded on the Freedom Index …” he said.
“And I think that together we can work to be able to restore Ghana to its pride of place in terms of media freedoms and free expression.”
The President said the Government would collaborate with the IPR Ghana to secure a site to construct a permanent office complex, just as the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has.
Madam Cobbah congratulated President Mahama on his victory and commended him for being a committed Member of the Institute and donating a bus to the members.
She assured him of the services of IPR Ghana in communication, when the need arises.
The Ghana News Agency (GNA) is the nation’s most authentic and reliable wire service.
It was established on March 5, 1957, on the eve of Ghana’s Independence and charged with the “dissemination of truthful unbiased news”.
It was the first news agency to be established in Sub-Saharan Africa by Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah.
GNA was part of a comprehensive communication policy that sought to harness the information arm of the state to build a viable, united and cohesive nation-state.
It has been operating in the unique role of mobilising the citizens for nation building, economic and social development, national unity and integration.
GNA