President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Affail Monney, has stated that the Association finds nothing wrong with journalists securing political appointments under current governments provided these journalists go by the principles of good journalism.
He made this statement during an interview on e.TV Ghana’s ‘Fact Sheet’ show with Samuel Eshun.
He explained: “Some will start as independent journalists and veer off to politics; that is their choice. So far as they are not offending the law, we have no problem with that.
Our system also recognizes and embraces political journalism so we have different types of journalists who will root for any of the parties as far as what they see or what they do is consistent with the principles of our profession. We have no problem about that.”
He, however, notes that in a case where there is a conflict of interest, “that is where [the journalist’s] conscience should scream at them” to do the right thing.
“Any journalist who does not have a conscience needs to re-examine him or herself,” he added.
Several Ghanaian journalists have received appointments into top positions in government. Notable examples are Kwame Sefa Kayi who was appointed as a board member for the National Petroleum Authority, Paul Adom Otchere who was also appointed to the National Communications Authority (NCA) board, among others.
