Gayheart Mensah and others fight plans to cede the Press Center
The GJA is without a functioning executive body
An aspiring candidate for the presidency position of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) is fighting off attempts to cede off the Ghana International Press Centre to the Ministry of Information.
According to Gayheart Mensah, this centre, which has been home to the leadership of the GJA, also embodies the soul of journalism in Ghana and as such, any attempts to alter that already existing tradition would be detrimental to the future of the profession.
A few days ago, investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, alleged that the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) was in the process of surrendering the International Press Centre to the Ministry of Information for redevelopment.
According to the Editor-In-Chief of The Fourth Estate, there exists a Memorandum of Understanding, whose terms include that the GJA will hand over the Press Centre to be developed into a multi-purpose facility known as “The Freedom House.”
He added that the new edifice will include office space for the National Media Commission and the Right to Information Commission as well as the GJA offices.
This is a claim that Gayheart has corroborated, adding that the history that the place carries cannot just be thrown away for any such new redevelopment plans.
“My attention has been drawn to a draft, unsigned MOU, with the Ministry of Information, the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), National Media Commission (NMC) and the Right to Information Commission (RTIC) as the intended signatories. At the center of the MOU is the future of our Press Centre. I pray that the MOU remains a draft and unsigned for a while. This is because the content of the MOU has far-reaching implications for the GJA and could define the future of our association in various respects. It, therefore, needs to be thoroughly and extensively discussed.
“For those who are relatively new to the GJA (I have been a member for 33 years now) the Press Centre is what I characterize as “the GJA’s long walk to freedom”. It has been a tortuous journey with which I have been associated – from the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) to the Mortuary Road, Kokomlemle, and then to the bold intercessions by H.E. Kabral Blay Amihere and Mrs. Gifty Affenyi Dadzie, which eventually found us where we are today, thanks to President J. A. Kufuor. The Press Center, as it is set out now, represents the very soul and identity of journalism in this country. Since Mrs Affenyi Dadzie secured the facility for us, it has not seen any significant addition or improvement. Indeed, it is deteriorating. That cannot continue. We definitely need a facelift,” he wrote in a statement made available to GhanaWeb.
Gayheart Mensah further added that while he agrees to a facelift of the facility, the terms in the said draft make such an arrangement an apprehensive one.
He has therefore called for the plans on this new redevelopment to be done through the use of the right processes, urging that this kind of decision if not rooted in extensive consultations as the current process seems to suggest, will not be beneficial to the organization.
“We certainly do not have any executives at this point in time, given that the tenure of the last executives elapsed one year ago and elections are yet to be held. Such a decision therefore cannot be purported to have been made by the GJA executives,” he wrote.
Read his full statement below:
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