23rd GJA Awards

NEWS COMMENTARY ON THE RECENTLY HELD GJA AWARDS AT THE KEMPINSKI HOTEL IN ACCRA

The 23rd GJA awards passed off successfully over the weekend. For the first time, it was held at the imposing Gold Coast Kempinski Hotel in Accra to at least give a new lease of life to the event. It was relaxing to see Media men treated to a good cocktail and interactive moments ahead of the start of the programme. Dinner also came in good time. This year’s GJA awards had a rather interesting theme coming in the wake of a number of investigative works by some media persons including Manasseh Azure Awuni and the undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas. It was “State of investigative journalism: boundaries of privacy and borders of the public interest”. This theme couldn’t have come at a better time as the Media and a section of the public are miles apart regarding what should be reported and what should not in the public interest. The debate got even hotter with Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ expose of the ‘rot’ at the Ghana Football Association under the leadership of Kwesi Nyantekyi. Many including some politicians questioned Anas’ style of getting his stories. Indeed the two times GJA Journalist of the year award winner Anas, has shown unwavering faith in exposing corruption even in the face of attacks and threats on his life. The GJA must be congratulated for coming out with the theme, to clear the many infractions regarding investigative journalism. Again it was in order to invite no mean a person than the Chief Justice Madam Sophia Akuffo, as Special Guest of honour to do justice to the topic from the legal point of view. In the close to one hour speech, the Chief Justice, made a strong point. She said media practitioners must be discerning and strike a fine balance between public interest and individual privacy during investigations. According to her, the act of breaching the privacy of an individual should only be used as the last resort after all ethical methods in getting the story had been exhausted. Her assertion is debatable.

Going forward, the GJA leadership must find a way of fine tuning the entire awards ceremony to make it more participatory and interesting. First is the time factor. Can the entire programme be planned to span three hours at most? It has been observed that once guests are done eating and witness few award presentations, they get bored and resort to chit chats. It was a bit embarrassing when the Special Guest of Honour, the Chief Justice mounted the Podium to deliver the keynote address. The entire auditorium was close to a market place with only few people close to the podium paying attention to what was being said. That by all standards was an indictment on the media fraternity. In the future, speakers at such programmes should be allocated few minutes for their speeches so as not to bore the audience. Obviously the interest of everyone present is to know who wins what. As the speeches got longer with too many musical interludes from the band, it was obvious people were getting tired. They walked out en mass because it was clear the programme as usual was going to go beyond midnight. Can the key note address and other special awards be made to feature a bit early so that the rest of the time can be used for dining and dancing to change the culture of having an almost empty hall before the coveted award winner is announced?

Secondly, the GJA should critically review the awards categories. It was not surprising when the Chairperson of the eight-member Awards Committee Dr. Doris Yaa Dartey, in an interview observed how the same people keep putting in entries for the awards. Certainly, there should be something fundamentally wrong. Isn’t it about time, leadership of the Association find out why there is apathy by most Journalists to submit entries even though a lot more do very good award winning stories that are aired on various channels. The GJA should do a quick survey of media persons to solicit their views about the awards to guide future awards programmes. The 23rd GJA awards also witnessed some honorary awards. Some posthumously. Journalism is a job ‘on the go’ and journalists who have stemmed the tide must be honoured while they live. The Journalists Awards is for Journalists to be celebrated and also to enable them to unwind after working hard throughout the year and so as many as deserve to be honoured for their immense contribution to national development must be recognized. The tradition of conferring honorary awards on businessmen and Politicians at an awards ceremony for Journalists must be critically re-examined. Another issue worth addressing is the Journalist of the year award. GJA is an Association with Members who pay dues, but not all Journalists are members of the Association. It is expected then that the Journalist of the year should be picked from the best of the entries from members of the Association. This will encourage journalists to work harder and make the ultimate award very competitive so as not to leave doubts on the minds of many silent observers. It is important for the Association to make conscious efforts to ensure that retired Journalists, many of whom have sacrificed their lives for press freedom are personally invited to grace the occasion to enable the upcoming ones to tap into their expertise. There are a number of awards programmes by other professional groupings that the GJA can module after. For instance the Ghana Bankers Awards, which is solely patronized by those in that sector and awards given to only Banks that have distinguished themselves. Since the inception of the awards in 1985 under the Presidency of the late Edwin Tengey, the Awards ceremony have improved tremendously but as it is said always ‘ there is more room for improvement. The Pen is indeed mightier than the sword. Long live the Ghana Journalists Association! Long live Ghana!!

BY: PASCALINE ADADEVOH, A JOURNALIST.