The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Knustford University College, a private tertiary institution in Accra, to build the capacity of media persons in Communication and Governance.
Per the MoU, members of the GJA would have the opportunity to undergo an annual 12 weeks free training programme for the next four years.
Already, about 500 journalists from the various media organisations have benefited from the training programme, which commenced some five years ago, to build their capacity as journalists.
The President of GJA, Mr Affail Monney, who signed the MoU on behalf of the association explained that the signing was to formalise the collaboration between Knustford and GJA on the training programme.
He said journalists should be ethically professional in the dissemination of information, and as well educate the public on issues in areas such as economic, governance and education.
Mr Monney was hopeful that the training programme would ease the financial burden on media organisations in training their personnel as most media institutions were currently undergoing financial challenges due to the low patronage of their services.
He appealed to other educational institutions to partner the GJA in the training of media persons to help improve the professional standards in journalism.
“We don’t want the situation that happened in Rwanda and other African countries, where we witnessed some journalists distort fact in their reportage. Journalists should learn something from their neighbouring countries, such as happenings in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea,” Mr Monney said.
The President of Knustford University College, Professor Anthony Ahiawodzi, said the short programme was meant to build the capacity of journalists to ensure professionalism in the media fraternity.
He said the media had over the years helped to deepen the democratic principles that had made Ghana the gateway of democracy on the continent, and expressed gratitude to management of the university for the offer.
BY BERNARD BENGHAN & IGNATIUS BLAY
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