Source-Information Services Department.
As part of the government’s plan of keeping Ghanaians abreast of its policies and Programmes, the Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has handed over a refurbished state of the art newsroom to the Information Services Department.
The newsroom is linked to an App ‘Bonsu Platform’ set up at the Public Coordinating Division of the ISD to produce real-time reports of the activities of the government from Public Relations Officers at Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
Journalists in the newsroom will produce and post government development projects on the department’s news portal, www.ghanatoday.gov.gh Ghana Today Magazine and distribute the materials to other media houses.
At a ceremony to hand over the newsroom to ISD, the Minister for Information, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah, said even though the government had done enough to turn the economy around and improve the lives of Ghanaians, there was the misconception that the government had not lived up to expectation.
He said the central phenomenon fueling this misconception among a section of Ghanaians was the lack of information on the government activities in the media space.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said it was against that backdrop that the government was transforming the ISD to perform its mandate of disseminating government Programmes.
He said the implementation of the government’s transformational agenda for the ISD started last year with re-structuring of the organogram of the department and re-alignment of staff to fill the positions they could perform effectively and efficiently.
He added that the Research Division was refurbished last year. Early this year, the Public Coordinating Division was also refurbished to produce real-time reports of the activities of the government.
‘’The newsroom has now been retooled and refurbished with modern electronic equipment that befits any news production organization in the country’’.
“The newsroom staff are expected to produce accurate and relevant information that would impact the lives of Ghanaians.’’
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah also disclosed that the Department has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ghana Institute of Journalism to train the Public Relations Officers of ISD to aid their certification by the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana.
He said the Ministry and ISD were in consultation with the Office of the Head of Civil Service to make the Public Relations class in the Service.
He added that another MoU had been signed with the Ghana Statistical Services to train District Information Officers to gather and analyze scientific public reaction reports on government’ projects.
On his part, Veteran Journalist, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, who was part of the technical team that redesigned the newsroom, encouraged officers of the newsroom to make a mark on the media space.
“We all need a trusted source of information, and this is an opportunity for ISD to be the most trusted source for government information,” he added.