Akomea questions rationale behind daily media briefing

The Director of Communications of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akomea, has questioned the rationale behind the plans for a daily media briefing by the Information Minister at the Flagstaff House, and warned that information could be detached from the Ministry.

He could not understand why the Minister of Information would leave the Information Ministry which houses an ultra modern Conference room to go and hold daily meetings with the press at the Flagstaff House.

“During my tenure as Minister of Information, we constructed a state of the art press center at the Ministry, so I can’t understand why they have chosen to hold this one at the Jubilee House or Flagstaff House,” he told Asempa FM.

The observation comes on the back of a statement signed by a Deputy Minister for Information and Media Relations, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, which said the move forms part of efforts to deepen government-public engagement.

The statement indicated that the daily press briefings will be held at the Flagstaff House, Accra, starting from Thursday, 16th May, 2013, at 11:00 AM, and reflects the government’s commitment to fulfill the fourth pillar of the NDC 2012 manifesto which promised transparent and accountable governance.

However, Nana Akomea maintained that briefings at the Flagstaff House were normally done by the President but “briefing on everyday routine government issues by the Information Minister, ideally, must be done at the Information Ministry”.

“We run the risk of the Information churned out being detached from the Information Ministry itself,” the NPP Communication Director cautioned.