Journalists protest over low “soli”
Ms Jawol Vera Magan, Programmes Officer of Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL), a non-governmental organization, has accused a group of journalists in the Northern Region of unprofessional conduct when they left behind their notebooks and jotters at an event ground.
She said the seven journalists displayed the unprofessional conduct in protest at the amount of money offered them by YEfL as “soli” after the event.
Ms Magan made the allegation at the first quarter media review meeting organized by Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), a northern Ghana-based NGO in Tamale, on Wednesday.
The quarterly meeting is a usual session between the NGO and its subsidiary organizations, and the media in the region to deliberate on ways to improve the collaboration between the NGO and the media for best results.
She said YEfL, which is a northern Ghana-based youth development-oriented NGO, organized an Annual Youth Forum at Dalum in the Tolon/Kumbungu District in August last year to make inputs into the National Youth Policy and provided a vehicle to transport the journalists from Tamale to the venue.
Ms Magan said after the event YEfL took the journalists back to Tamale but noticed “a change in their body language” with some talking in low tones suggesting they would not file a report on the event because the amount offered them was meager.
She said YEfL officials, who remained at the event grounds after the departure of the journalists, found that notebooks and jotters belonging to journalists had been left on their seats, adding that surprisingly none of the journalists called to report about leaving or forgetting notebooks and jotters.
Ms Magan said apart from one medium, none of the other media houses or journalists wrote a story on the event.
She appealed to the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) to purge its members and flash out the bad nuts in the profession because their actions were denting the image of journalism in the country.
Mrs Rosemond Kumah, Programmes Advocacy and Communications Officer of GDCA, appealed to the media to forge a strong partnership with the organization (GDCA) and its subsidiaries for good results.
She said the involvement and participation of the media in the activities of the GDCA was important in achieving success and called on the media only report on events but also offer suggestions that would help improve the collaboration.
Source: GNA