The Executive Director of Africa Education Watch (AEW), Mr Kofi Asare, has urged the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) and the general public to continue rewarding good journalism in the country.

According to him, this will encourage complaince to the accepted norms of journalism, which willl automatically discourage the practice of bad journalism in the society.

“It is important to reward good journalism because in today’s society, there are two brands of journalism. There is one brand that serves the interest of a few and another that affects the quality of life of all the people, and that is the journalism that the constitution envisions.”
Kofi Asare

Speaking in an interview, Mr Asare noted that rewarding excellence is not about financial motivation or peculiar benefits, but more about recognition. He emphasized that the more Ghana continues to recognise good journalism, the country incentivises it and disincentivises the practise of bad journalism.

Mr Asare further applauded all the nominees and winners of the award ceremony for their hardwork and the positive effects they have had on society. He aked all nominees to be proud of themselves “for working hard to influence policies, practices and behaviours towards the better advancement of society.”

His comment follows the GJA annual awards which came off on Saturday, November 12, 2022 at the Kempinski Gold Cost Hotel in Accra. The event was held on the theme: “Walking the Path Towards Ghana’s Economic Recovery, The Role of the Media.” The 26th GJA Awards Night was chaired by former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Ernest Aryeetey.

The awards night brought together dignitaries including the Special Media Advisor at the Presidency, Mrs. Florence Oboshie Sai-Coffie, the Deputy Minister of Information, Fatimatu Abubakar, Supreme Court Judge, Justice Yonni Kulendi and U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Virginia E. Palmer.

The event, saw Portia Gabor of TV3 adjudged the P.AV. Ansah Journalist of the year 2021. She was also the best health reporter for the TV category for a story titled ‘Wealth for Health’ and also picked up the best news reporter (TV) for her story on ‘A beggar’s Paradise’.

She paid glowing tribute to the pacesetters of journalism in Ghana, especially the female journalists, as she received her award.

Modalities For GJA Awards Reviewed

The Ghana Journalist Association disclosed that the structure for the selection of awardees for its annually held awards night has been reviewed following a barrage of concerns from stakeholders.

The Association revealed that, since its newly appointed executives took office, they have taken another look at the awards scheme to make it bigger and better in the coming years.

The new President of GJA, Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, said this during the awards night last Saturday. Mr. Dwumfour added “in that regard, a seven-member GJA Media Awards Review Committee chaired by Dr. Sarah Akrofi-Quarcoo, a renowned broadcast journalist and lecturer at the Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana, was set up to overhaul the awards and its organisation.”

He indicated that, the committee has therefore, decided to reduce the number of award categories from 56 to 37 and also conducted a re-designation and re-description of some award categories for better clarity and impact.

According to him, GJA believes the review exercise will help improve the GJA Media Awards . He assured the guest that this is only the begining and it’s work in progress.