ACCRA, March 27, (GJA) – THE Government of Ghana, under the auspices of the Ministry of Information, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO, have jointly launched the 2018 World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) in Accra.
The global event themed: “Keeping power in check: Media, justice and the rule of law”, is expected to be attended by about 700 journalists, media practitioners and other stakeholders from all over the world.
The 25th WPFD, which will be hosted in Ghana, the first African country to do so, will cover issues of media and the transparency of the political process, the independence and media literacy of the judicial system, and the accountability of state institutions towards the public.
The event will also examine contemporary challenges of ensuring press freedom online.
The UNESCO country representative, Mr. Tirso Dos Santos and Deputy Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, are the co-chairpersons for the organizing committee of the event.
Speaking at the launch Monday, Mr dos Santos explained that WPFD originated when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 1991 Windhoek Declaration.
Following the adoption of the Windhoek Declaration, May 3 was declared as World Press Freedom Day to raise awareness on the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to free expression as enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
Mr dos Santos said as part of activities marking this year’s celebrations, 40 trainee journalists selected from journalism training institutions in Ghana and abroad, will be trained to constitute a Youth Newsroom.
These young journalists after the training will work together to cover the WPFD live for various forms of media.
Mr. dos Santos said there were about eight local and international partners, including the World Bank, Aljazeera and Article 29, helping in the organisation of the event.
In his remarks, the Minister of Information, Dr Mustapha Abdul Hamid, said the occasion was an opportunity to portray Ghana’s cultural and tourism potentials to the world.
He admonished journalists to “take advantage of the occasion to network and share ideas”.
He said the event “will help improve the economy” and, therefore, urged businesses to utilise such opportunity.
Dr Hamid said by the end of 2018, the Right To Information (RTI) Bill laid before Parliament would be passed into law.
He made reference to Ghana’s credentials in press freedom, saying, there are over 350 radio stations, more than 40 newspapers and 16 television stations in the country, indicating how open the media landscape is in the country.
On his part, the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Affail Monney, said press freedom was the “oxygen of media practice”, and entreated journalists across the country to register and participate in the event.
The President of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), Mr. Andrew Danso Aninkora, pointed out the role of the media, saying, “It is time for us to propagate the good things about us (journalists and the media)”.
He called on all independent broadcasters to “release resources to ensure we are heard well”.
A list of programmes and activities marking the 2018 WPFD was also outdoored, with the media encouraged to take various aspects to develop good.
The last WPFD was held in May 2017 in Indonesia but Ghana won the right to host the 2018 edition, beating India and other prominent countries to it.
By Francis Ntow