License Journalists-Dattey

THE Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board (NAB), Mr Kwame Dattey, has called for the licensing of journalists as a prerequisite for them to practise in the country.
The licensing, he said, did not imply that restrictions were being placed on journalists in the performance of their legitimate duties and work.
Making the suggestion at the first meeting of the Governing Council of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) in Accra yesterday, Mr Dattey said the licensing would rather help to improve the media landscape as the unprofessional ones would not be allowed to operate.
He said there were too many individuals in the country who carried themselves as journalists, whose conduct, he said, was questionable and denigrated the image of the profession.
Providing further justification for his suggestion, Mr Dattey said the measure, if implemented, would also contribute to eliminating mushroom journalism schools, most of whom were operating without proper accreditation from the NAB.
By his suggestion, he said unless one was licensed by the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) or an appropriate body, that person should not be allowed to do anything as a professional journalist or be recognised as such.
The Chairman of the Governing Council of GIJ, Mr A. B. A Fuseni, assured the public of the council’s commitment to transform the institute to reflect the current trends in the media industry.
Mr Fuseni explained that recent development in the media landscape required a very high calibre of human resource to match up to the challenges of the industry.
He said that challenge demanded absolute commitment on the side of the council to formulate policies and give direction to the institute to enhance the calibre of the products that the institute turned out every year.
He said one of the immediate tasks of the council was to help in shaping students for the job market, both in and outside the country.
“To this end, our focus as council would be to update training facilities, especially in the areas of information communication technology (ICT), provision of basic infrastructure and the recruitment of seasoned staff, both teaching and non-teaching, for the institute,“ he added.
Mr Fuseni expressed worry about the limited facilities in the school, saying the situation was driving away too many potential students from the institute.
He, therefore, called for extra commitment on the side of council members to address the situation.
The Rector of the institute, Mr David Newton, in his report, gave an overview of previous strategic plans that were developed and what had been achieved in that direction.
Mr Newton said in 2006, another corporate strategic plan was developed, and noted that “so far, two major achievements have been recorded under the new corporate strategic plan”.
The two, he said, included the passage of the new legislation, Act 717, to make GIJ a degree-awarding institution and the granting of ??? a Presidential Charter in June, 2009.
He informed the council on progress made so far on the construction of a 12-unit classroom block which was awarded as far back as 1998, and said that only the basement of the project had so far been completed.
Mr Newton attributed the delay in the project to a lack of funds and the inability of the contractor to pre-finance the project.