By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Chairman of the Ashanti Regional branch of the Sports Writers Association- Ghana (SWAG) and General Manager- Oyerepa FM, a Kumasi based FM station, Mr. Barima Boadaa Otuo-Acheampong popularly known in the sporting arena as Sometymer Otuo-Acheampong has debunked long help notion that Sports Journalists in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital do things differently from what their counterparts in Accra do.
Many people have raised concern about the poor and unprofessional manner in which journalists in the Kumasi Metropolis and its environs practice journalism. The situation is said to be worst in Sports and Political Talk Shows.
But the Kumasi-based Oyerepa FM’s General Manager thinks otherwise.
Speaking via zoom on GTV Sports+ Current Affairs programme, “Saving Our Passion”, Sometymer Otuo-Acheampong explained that the confusion over who is doing what in the Ghanaian media space it the use of language.
“All this brouhaha about the ‘unprofessional’ journalism been practiced by sports journalists in the garden city has come as a result of the so-called elitist radio and television stations.
You see using the local language in sports presentation with not be the same as using a foreign language which is the Queen’s language” he noted.
According to Sometymer Otuo-Acheampong sports journalists in Kumasi are not doing anything different from what goes on at the various media stations in the capital city Accra.
“More often than not, the criticism has come from those who are used to the English type of presentation which most people referred to as elite’s media houses, obviously listening to a presentation in Twi or any local language will not be same”, he added.
