The Electoral Commission (EC) has blamed the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) and the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) for spelling the names of journalists incorrectly on their accreditation forms.
The EC in collaboration with the GJA and GIBA facilitated the arrangements to provide accreditation for journalists and media houses for the coverage of the December polls.
However, many of the accreditation cards have errors on them, especially in the spelling of names.
For example, Citi FM’s Umaru Sanda Amadu was identified as Sandra Amadu, the same station’s Richard Sky was spelt Richard Sly, while Eugenia Tenkorang was spelt as Eugenia Yenkorang.
But Deputy Communications Director at the EC, Yusif Ayuba speaking on Adom FM’s Morning Show “Dwaso Nsem” Tuesday said they cannot be faulted for errors identified on the cards.
He said majority of the media houses submitted their names through GJA and GIBA and the EC believes the two bodies should be blamed and not the EC.
“We don’t know names of these journalists in the various media houses. We received the list from GJA and GIBA and that was what we forwarded to the printers and there is no way that error could come from us” he stated.
This notwithstanding, Mr Ayuba noted that his outfit is ready to correct the errors on the accreditation if the need be.
He said printers have been given up to close of work Wednesday to submit all accreditation for distribution.
However, GJA President, Affail Monney has rejected the EC’s claim that it was at fault and rather blames the printers, saying they failed to do proof reading before printing the cards.
“I think the printers are to blame and not GJA because we know our members and will not spell their names wrongly. They failed to proof read and that is the problem. There is no journalist who will spell his or her name wrongly” he noted.
On his part, President of GIBA, Kwesi Agyemang on the same show advised the EC to rather concentrate on correcting the mistakes and stop the blame game since they are not to be faulted for what he describes as a ‘mess’ from the EC.
“There was no mistake on the list we gave to EC and so they should rather correct their mistakes and stop the blame game.
“We are helping them with so many things and (they should) not blame where you cannot find any fault. That mess is not from us” he declared.
Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission’s decision to charge journalists before issuing accreditation for the coverage of the 2016 presidential and parliamentary polls has been described as shameful by ace journalist, Kwami Sefa Kayi.
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