‘Jurnalists urged to specialise’

THE Minister of Communications, Mr Haruna Iddrisu has emphasised the need for journalists to specialise in specific fields, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT), in order to make significant contributions to the country’s development.
“You have a wider coverage, what you report has implications within and outside Africa”, he said, noting that, “the world has become a global village and therefore you should be ready to take responsibility of your reportage”.
In that direction, he also sked journalists to be circumspect and non-judgemental in their reportage and at all time and respect laws that protected reputation.
Mr Iddrisu was addressing participants comprised of media personnel at the end of a symposium organised by the African University College (AUCC) in Accra on the theme, “Communication, New Media and Development in Africa”.
The sector Minister, said he considered the theme for the symposium timely as Africa, “asserts itself in the globalised world and launches itself as an active partner of the world information society.
“We need specialise training for up and coming journalist. Specialise training in ICT, particularly in an area to assist government to fight cyber crime, agriculture and the constitution to be able to make significant contributions to the country’s development”, he emphasised.
Mr Iddrisu announced that it was the decision of government to ensure that every district in the country owned a community radio station to balance the disparity across the country.
He admitted that the government’s greatest challenge was how to mainstream ICT and how to make it an enabler through improved connectivity, hinting that currently government was making progress with the e-governance project to link citizens and the government online.
Through that , he believed rural Ghana could make meaningful input in the decision making process and expressed his ministry’s commitment to build a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented information society, where every one could create, access, utilise and share information and knowledge.
The Acting-Dean, Journalism and Communication at AUCC, Mr Absalom Mutere urged the government that in its pursuits for e-governance, it should also ensure the passage of the Right to Information Bill, as a backdrop, because without that, the project would not yield the expected result.
He also pointed out the importance of ICT infrastructure, if citizens were going to easily access the e-governance facility, particularly at the grassroots level.
The President of Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC), Dr Osei K. Darkwa said the e-governance facility, which he described as “an online version of the off-line government” had the ability to re-organised government machinery.
He said GTUC had a policy where student were given discounts to enable them purchase laptops as a way of entrenching the use of the ICT, and to ensure maximum use the technology, he noted that the University had a wireless network where every student with a password could easily access.
Currently, Mr Darkwa disclosed that the University was in collaboration with Omatek Computers, an ICT company that assembled laptops in Ghana to assist students at the University to also learn how to assemble laptops, and acquire more skill in the application of the technology.
In order to address the problem of cyber fraud in the country, he suggested that because the enforcement agencies lacked adequate tools to clamp down on perpetrators, the government could set up incubator centres where students with brilliant and innovative ideas could be supported in their various projects.
“They need money, and so if they have their own patented products, I believe it will be beneficial to them, thought it will not totally eradicate the problem”, he added.

Caption: The Minister of Communication, Mr Haruna Iddrisu (right), the President of AUCC, Mr Kojo Yankah (middle) and the President of Ghana Telecom University College (GTUC), Dr Osei K. Darkwa, in an interaction at the symposium.