The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has urged journalists and media houses to desist from spreading misinformation about the Service’s operations, warning that such actions are eroding public trust in the institution.
In an interview with the media, the Head of Public Relations at the GNFS, Divisional Officer Grade II Desmond Ackah, expressed concern over the tendency of some journalists to report unverified information from fire scenes.
He noted that journalists often claim residents have made multiple calls to GNFS without receiving a response or timely assistance, yet fail to verify who made the call, when it was made, or how long the conversation lasted.
Ackah stressed the importance of accurate reporting, urging media personnel to thoroughly investigate such claims before publishing.
“I believe it is high time our friends in the media also helped us. I always say that it is you our friends in the media, who have been misinforming the ordinary Ghanaian. Sometimes you get to the fire scene and you care not to even find out who called the fire service, but they would rather tell you that, oh, we’ve been calling them for hours. We’ve been calling them for so many minutes now. They’ve not been coming. We want you to be asking them, okay, who called? Whose phone did you use to call? We want to see the call log. Want to see the actual time that you called and see even the minutes or the number of seconds that you even spoke with the call takers,” he said.
He emphasized that this level of diligence will help counteract misinformation and restore the public’s confidence in the Fire Service.
“So we ask, and we plead with our friends in the media, please, when you get a chance to go to fire scenes do us good. By giving or questioning our accusers, people who always want to put us in a mud, that’s okay you have called, we understand, let us see the number that you called,” he added.
