CONSTITUTIONS FACES REVIEW

Front page
17/8/09

The country’s 1992 Constitution is to undergo a major review, Vice-President John Dramani Mahama has hinted.
Consequently, he said, a constitutional review conference would be held in early 2010 to begin the process of identifying the areas which required amendments.
The Vice-President dropped the hint at the 14th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) awards held in Accra last Saturday to honour journalists and media organisations for their contributions to the country’s democratic process.
It was on the theme, "Media — Promoting Dialogue, Mutual Understanding and National Unity".
The Vice-President said the 1992 Constitution had served the country well and had been the basis for the significant progress Ghana had made as a nation in democratic governance "but as a living document we would need at certain periods in its life to make amendments to some aspects of it".
He said the review process would be open and transparent and would involve all political stakeholders.
On efforts by the government to put the economy on an even keel, the Vice-President pointed out that the government had been faced with serious challenges with regard to the economy and had, therefore, focused on instituting and monitoring measures to restore stability to pave the way to lay the foundation for economic growth and acceleration.
Those measures, he said, had begun to pay off and the country was witnessing a downturn in the inflation index while relative stability of the cedi had been achieved.
"With the restoration of relative stability of the economy," Mr Mahama said, the government could now focus on other critical issues that required attention.
"This government is determined and capable of delivering on its contract with the people and we are positive that at the end of our term we would have created a better Ghana than we came to meet it," he stated.
The Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr Paul Adu-Gyamfi, urged the media to discipline itself by ensuring that it operated within the confines of its code of conduct, ethics and the law.
"We must have the humility to admit that not all has been praiseworthy in the past 60 years," he said, and saluted courageous journalists who through responsible journalism supported the country's struggle for self-determination.
"With democracy on course, the field is broad and wide for the future of journalism and the media in Ghana," he stated, and, therefore, urged journalists to take their destiny into their own hands and demonstrate to the world once again that Africa could do what was right.
The Minister of Information, Mrs Zita Okaikoi, expressed the need for the media to be fair and objective in their reportage, stating that the beauty of the media was to ensure that Ghanaians remained united as a people.
"We should not use the media to destroy what we have built over the years. We should avoid one-sided reportage and endeavour to engage investigative and development journalism," she charged.
In that regard, she gave the assurance that the government would ensure that the media remained independent by passing into law the Freedom of Information Bill.
The Deputy Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms Anna Bossman, stressed the need to avoid media tyranny, stressing that "we must be accountable to one another and our maker”.
The President of the GJA, Mr Ransford Tetteh, said the success that had been chalked up by the GJA was a collective effort of all journalists and urged the practitioners to promote democracy, neutrality and unity.
He said in spite of the challenges confronting the media, they were still vibrant, and appealed to members of the public to refrain from physically assaulting journalists because they did not agree with a media broadcast or publication.
Mr Tetteh said the abolition of the Criminal Libel and Seditious Law in 2001 had provided greater impetus to free expression and press freedom and commended the public for accepting all those actions that had helped to free and embolden the media to do their work.
He said "we believe that without them we would not have made the progress that we have so far made in democratisation."