Nana Kay Reminds Journalists To Fact-Check Stories
Communication team member of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Nana Kwadwo Agyei Yeboah (Nana Kay), says he prefers a media landscape in Ghana that is diverse in its reportage to one that is uniformed in its work as exist in countries saddled with dictatorship, stressing that the Akufo-Addo administration will not engage in media buying just to look good in the eyes of Ghanaians.
He has reminded journalists to always fact-check their stories before publication.
He said by doing that, they would be paying attention to the fundamentals of journalism and put a stop to the growing spate of misinformation, particularly in the digital media.
According to him, he is “very encouraged by the continuing vibrancy and diversity of the Ghanaian media” in the nation and that the open and diverse media “is the very foundation of our democratic open society”.
Nana Kay noted that he “will hesitate to accept any situation that looks for uniformity in the media”.
“It is the reason I cannot agree that there is a culture of silence in Ghana because the government is committed to the culture of free media in Ghana,” Nana Kwadwo Agyei Yeboah (Nana Kay) exclusively told Kwaku Owusu Adjei on Accra-based Original FM 91.9
“Like the other estates of the realm that advocate for and genuinely deserve investments to improve the quality of output, so too does the media require relevant, timely, sustained investment to improve the quality of its output, “he said
However, he said the Akufo-Addo government is rather bent on promoting free media.
He added that in many instances, fake news on social media was also published in mainstream media without due diligence, a development he described as worrying.
“In most instances, misinformation on digital media gets migrated onto mainstream media. The end effect is that when journalists put misinformation in mainstream media without doing the necessary background checks, trust in the media and journalism gradually goes down.
“We should go back to the rudiments of journalism and not allow competition and the desire to break the news first to rule us all the time,” he further advised.
