A statement Bertha Badu-Agyei, Secretary of the Association,
signed on Saturday condemned the conduct of Dr Apea-Kubi and pointed
out to him that he needed the support of the media to succeed as a
Regional Minister.
It said Journalists in the Region were qualified professionals,
who had worked with Dr Apea-Kubi’s predecessors, who were civilised
and cultured enough to tolerate some of their mistakes, since media
practitioners were but humans.
The Association said it recognised the right of the Regional
Minister to fair and impartial coverage but the mistakes in reportage,
which he complained about, did not warrant the tantrums of last
Tuesday since there were avenues to rectify such errors.
The statement said the Association would no longer tolerate any
harassment or intimidation of any media personnel and demanded that
Journalists assigned to cover the programmes of the Regional Minister
be treated with respect and dignity.
It appealed to Journalists in the Region to exercise restraint
while the Leadership of the Association sought amicable settlement.
Dr Apea-Kubi, much unlike astute politicians, dared the media
while reacting to a story he claimed to be untrue when he obliged to a
media briefing at the end of a day’s tour of the Akuapem North
District last Tuesday.
Giving the background to the verbal attack the Association stated
that when the Regional Minister was about to start his tour, the
Eastern Regional Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC),
Mr Bismark Tawiah-Boateng demanded that one Michael Akrofi, a Reporter
of Peace FM, an Accra-based radio station, should not join the Press
Corps covering it.
His reason was that Mr Akrofi did not present the correct facts
when he covered a previous meeting of NDC, but Mr Akrofi ignored him.
When the Regional Minister’s entourage got to Obosomase and Mr
Tawiah-Boateng saw Mr Akrofi he again demanded that he should get off
the tour because he wanted to destroy the NDC by the way he had been
reporting on issues affecting the Party in the Region.
The confrontation made supporters of NDC, who were around to make
uncomplimentary remarks about the media so the Press Corps decided to
withdraw its services but the District Chief Executive, Mr George
Opare-Addo intervened and pleaded with the media personnel to rescind
their decision. Mr Tawiah-Boateng apologised for his actions.
The statement said at the end of the tour, the Corps requested for
an interaction with Dr Apea-Kubi to clarify some of the issues that
came up during the tour and he obliged, but instead of the briefing he
decided to launch a verbal attack on Journalists in the country.
Link: