The Ghana Journalists Association’s presidential hopeful, David Agbenu yesterday reiterated his commitment to ensure zero tolerance for unprovoked attacks on journalists in the line of duty by politicians, saying this will be a thing of the past under his tenure.
He said it was unfortunate that some journalists, particularly Ahmed Suale lost his life and LatifIddris and other journalists suffered unprovoked attacks and up to date the situation persisted with impunity.
Speaking ahead of Friday’s GJA national executive election with journalists of Multimedia Group (Joyfm), in Accra, as part of his campaign tour, Mr Agbenu said he would work with Ghana’s Parliament for a Private Member’s Bill that would seek stiffer punishment for perpetrators of violence against journalists performing their constitutional duty.
By that he said he would institute a consortium of lawyers who are journalists to prosecute cases of such attacks for speedy justice delivery.
Mr Agbenu who is the Editor of the Ghanaian Times said one of his other priorities was to organise stakeholder engagement with employers on the need to pay journalists reasonable remuneration for their services to make them better off, and serve as incentives for the younger generation.
He said having seen the poor living condition of journalists on retirement, some of them living at the benevolence of friends and relations, it was time that a retirement scheme was worked out for them,“since all of us practicing today would at one time or the other go on retirement.”
To questions as to how he would ensure financial independence of the GJA from its current state of corporate annual sponsorship of its flagship GJA Awards and other activities to keep the association running, Mr Agbenu disclosed that a group of professionals specialised in proposal writing, would be tasked to solicit for projects.
This, “we think will bring us much needed incomes for the welfare of the association.”
He hinted of the establishment of Press Centres across the country where journalists can converge for social interaction as was the case with other professional bodies like the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Ghana Medical Association (GMA) and the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNA) who have invested so much in infrastructural development that is reaping enormous benefit for them.
“We are capable of doing the same under my leadership when given the mandate on Friday.”
His administration, Mr Agbenu said would actualise the much talked about unionisation of the GJA to enable it to have a bargaining chip for better condition service for members.
By Norman Cooper
The post I’m committed to ending unprovoked attacks on journalists – David Agbenu appeared first on Ghanaian Times.