Former Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA); Prof. Kwame Karikari has stressed the importance of critical journalism in Ghana.
The veteran journalist who was the guest at the MTN Bright Conversations hosted as part of the telco’s 25th Anniversary celebrations spoke on a range of subjects especially Ghana’s media practices.
He said although professional journalism is important, it is lame without critical journalism. “Critical journalism improves the quality of professional journalism” he stressed. He commended the state-owned media for exhibiting high professional standards. “In the private sector, radio and television, we also have a number of establishments that have quite professional and so much that are nothing to write home about as far as professionalism is concerned” he said.
He also said that many media houses are owned by politicians who do not have a clue what journalism is about and hence the exhibition of unprofessional journalism.
He encouraged journalists to question things and express dissent wherever necessary. “We cannot have uniform journalism; that is what we do not want” he said. He criticized the state-owned media for not being able to hold governments to account.
He said although the Ghanaian media has generally done well, one aspect of journalism that the Ghanaian media has fallen behind on is financial education and matters of economics.
He agreed that the conditions of service of media personnel impacts on the levels of professionalism of media personnel.
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