THE Ghana Bar Association (GBA) has urged media houses to utilise the services of experts to inform public opinion on important national issues.
It said the practice whereby media houses relied on partisan propagandists in the discussion of such national issues often resulted in the public being misled through misinformation.
President of the GBA, Mr Frank Beecham, who made the call at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, also urged members of the association to desist from the unprofessional practice of arguing cases pending before the courts in the media.
He advised legal practitioners to instead utilise appropriate legal processes to address dissatisfactions regarding the decisions of the courts.
He expressed regret at the growing unethical practice of some lawyers who argued cases in the media when the courts had given judgments they did not agree with, saying, "They can do so using due processes to ventilate such grievances."
According to him, the independence and integrity of the Judiciary was a basic condition for the rule of law, an impact on national development and the proper administration of justice and strengthening of democracy.
He said much as decisions taken by the courts might be subjected to scrutiny and fair and just criticism, unsubstantiated comments regarding cases on trial and impugning corruption to judges did not only go to undermine the rule of law but also eroded public confidence in the Judiciary.
Mr Beecham explained that the growing populist culture of engaging in debates in the media put a smack on the integrity of the legal profession, while the imposition on persons whom allegations had been made to prove their innocence burdened the principles of the judicial system.
"Whenever issues implicating the law arise during public debates, lawyers ought to situate the matter within its confines, devoid of emotions and prejudices," he stated.
He also charged the Electoral Commission (BC) to ensure the proper validation of the biometric register to promote free, fair and transparent elections in 2012.
According to him, there was the need for the EC to make use of the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPECAC) to ensure that all legitimate concerns of all stakeholders informed its decision in the conduct of the polls.
He described the use of intemperate language by politicians and personal attacks in the media as a threat to democracy and the peace of the nation and urged media houses to live up to their responsibility as gatekeepers, particularly regarding panel discussions and phone-ill segments on radio.
He equally called on political parties to take a clear, unambiguous stance on the dangerous trend of intolerance, personality attacks and downright lies against opponents.
Mr Beecham charged the government to develop institutions and the human resource capacity of Ghanaians to ensure that the economy and the citizenry enjoyed optimum gains from Ghana's resources towards accelerated growth.
SOURCE: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Fri, Oct 7, 2011
Miss Russel Ocloo,
ReplyDeleteDon't do that.
Don't write things without doing what is expected of you as a young journalist.
You probably don't understand the whole issues or you don't understand who a senior medical officer is in the medical profession.
Why did you do that? What were your sources? You were wrong with your figures.
I don't believe in strike but you should do the right thing. Be honest!
Don't be a propaganda tool, it destroys your credibility.
I see from your profile that you are ambitious. It was either reckless or malicious ambition that drove you to claim that the CRUX of the Doctors' strike was that they want a certain gap closed. Since you chose to ignore the GMA's repeatedly stated issues of FWSC choosing to abandon single spine grades based on a scientific job evaluation, and decided to focus on fictitious figures purported to be current salaries of doctors, only one conclusion can be drawn: that you wanted Ghanaians to believe that doctors already earn so much, and are so greedy they are arguing for so much more. It's worrying that for a story on the "Crux" you chose to focus on such a diversion. And even if you wanted to include doctors' salaries, at least go to the Controller and Accountant General's Dept and ask for true figures! Instead, without verification, you put out figures inflated about 100%! As far as you're concerned, you're only interested in your ambition.
ReplyDeleteYou see, newspaper ink doesn't fade, and 5, 10 years from now, the evidence will be around that either at best, you're just another shoddy person with access to a PC, or at worst you're a corrupt poker-faced liar.