Journalists have been advised to guard against publishing uncertified election results as a way of contributing to ensuring that Ghana’s December 2016 General Poll are peaceful.
Mr Mawusi Afele, a Former Acting General Manager of the Ghana News Agency (GNA), explained that elections results were about figures, and urged media practitioners to be cautious of churning out figures from questionable sources during, before and after the elections.
The journalist cum manager, who is also a former Elections Officer of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), gave the advice at a three-day workshop for editors, reporters, stringers, technical and administrative staff of the nation’s only wire service, the GNA, in Koforidua.
Mr Afele emphasised that it was very necessary for journalists to be conversant with figures, but guard against publishing elections results from polling stations, social media or taking polls results from colleague journalists.
However, at best, he said, journalists covering the elections could take only certified results from the constituency centres.
The workshop forms part of the “GNA Tracks Election 2016 Project”, being funded by GOIL, the state oil company and CIMG 2015 Petroleum Company of the year.
The project seeks to sensitise the electorate on the various issues raised by political parties, the elections management body and other governance institutions.
Mr Afele, who is also former Supervising Chief Editor of the Agency, took participants across the GNA Terms of Reference on the elections and urged them to exhibit a high level of professionalism.
Alhaji Mohammed Nurudeen Issahaq, the Acting General Manager of the GNA, said since elections were an essential part of every democratic process the Agency had an important role to play in ensuring a successful outcome in the general election.
He announced that the Agency was embarking on a project christened the ‘One Ghana’ initiative in support of the ongoing nationwide campaign to ensure a free, fair, peaceful and credible general election.
Mrs Faith Amedzake, the Eastern Region Electoral Officer of the Electoral Commission (EC), said the Commission related to the Media in terms of accurate reportage devoid of passionate inflammatory language.
She appealed to the Media for more public education of the dos and don’ts of elections.
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(Via: NewsGhana)
