Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, says claims by some members of the public that there is a culture of silence in the country are untrue.
He said Government was working to satisfy the constitutional mandate required for the functioning of the country’s democracy, “The claim that there is a culture of silence in this country; you can’t talk in this country, we all know that cannot be the truth”, he told Journalists in Damongo, capital of the Savannah Region on Saturday, May, 8, 2021, during his three-day familiarisation tour of the North East, Upper East, Savannah, Upper West and Northern Regions.
The minister added that the tour is to engage the foremost arm of government under the ministry of Information for which the Media is a major stakeholder to see the status of the state owned media as part of the exercise to reorganizing and transforming these media houses in the various Regions and
also to up hold the relation between the Ministry of information and the media in the various regions.
Hon Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said that without the media all the other arms of Government cannot be seen to be working for democracy as the 1992 constitution in chapter 12 states the freedom of the the media.
He said the NPP Government has a track record of deepening this chapter 12 Including repelling of the criminal libel law, putting up international press center, passing of RTI law and recently the media safety response center in Accra.
He encouraged the media in the Savannah Region to sell the region to potential investors. He said there are a lot of tourist sites to promote attract investors into the region.
The minister who is also the MP for Ofoase- Ayeribe constituency said we are not in normal times as COVID-19 has broken our economy from 7 to 0.9 percent.
He thanked the media in Savannah Region for the journey so far and encouraged them to do more with all the sacrifice.
The Savannah Regional Minister, Hon Saeed Muazu Jibril said he was very grateful to the Media in Savannah Region as he admitted that Journalists in the region has gone through rough times where media personnels at times has to sit in car buckets to cover stories for the Region.
He pleaded with media practitioners to still bare with him as the situation will be improved in no time.
In an address on behalf journalists in the Region, JoyNews correspondent Mr Isaac Nonye said the visit by the sector minister was timely as it will create an opportunity to address some pertinent issues.
Mr Isaac said the media in the region plays a critical role to development of all sectors and must be encouraged to do more on playing such role.
Source: yagbonradioonline
