Keepers of the Media Flame - GNA

A GNA feature by Sepenyo Dzokoto

Ho, April 26, GNA - In 1957, Ghana News Agency (GNA) was born with a mission to gather news from all over the country for distribution to news subscribers, mainly newspapers, radio stations and diplomatic missions.

It was also to trade news with other news agencies in the world. As it celebrates 50 years of its inception, this year, riding on the waves of the Ghana @ 50 events, the big question is whether that mission is still relevant in present day circumstances. The Agency within its period of existence had to contend with various regimes that officially or unofficially defined the role of the media and for that matter the GNA.

Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, First President, saw the role of the GNA through the lens of his political policy of harnessing the press for national development and perhaps advocate of his anti-colonialist stance in international affairs.

When he was dedicating the new offices of the GNA in 1965, he said: "The necessity for a clear ideology of the African revolution must be to view problems in the right perspective so that the journalist can write them with insight and understanding."

He continued: "The drum beat of the African revolution must throb in the pages of his newspapers and magazines; it must sound in the voices and feelings of our news readers. To this end, we need a new kind of journalist for the African revolution."

When the Osagyrfo the President's era ended, the policy direction of successive governments regarding the Agency vacillated between commitment and tacit neglect.

quasi-military regimes which decided where that freedom started and where it ended.

Major A. H. Selormey, Commissioner for Information in the National Redemption Council (NRC) junta in the 1970s put it bluntly. "We allow the freedom of the press to operate in this country as far as it is consistent with a military government. Every newsman should be experienced enough to know that a military regime is not a regular or normal State of affairs and that there is need for caution and circumspection in their work".

He continued: "A military government, by its very nature is certainly inconsistent with any pretensions to subscribing fully to the concept of freedom of the press in the normal acceptance of the expression."

administrative costs are virtually for paid by the Ghanaians Taxpayer. Various interventions have been planned or initiated to improve the efficiency levels of the Agency. Currently the grounds are being prepared to re-structure the Agency under the Public Sector Reform Programme.

The need for a national wire service is as relevant today as before especially against the backdrop of more and more channels in the print and electronic media opening and operating in an atmosphere of freedom guaranteed under the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana. The job of media managers all over the world, especially in the Western Democracies is to balance the social service element of media organizations with the business ethics.

That is, while chasing, collecting and processing the news to feed the information needs of areas of coverage, these managers must at the same time operate in such a way as to keep their businesses above the bottom line.

The economies of small media organizations, even the big ones, cannot contain the cost of adequate geographical coverage of Ghana. This situation might result as it already exist in more news from the urban centres about government activities; outpourings of politicians and big businesses laced with stories of rape, defilement, murders and the like and thus leaving out stories about social issues and the poor.

A clearinghouse of news like the GNA is, therefore, important for every developing country. It is from that clearinghouse that a regional newspaper in the Volta Region for example would pick a story of interest from the Upper East Region.

operations because it cannot sell its services at market prices. There is no way GNA could go and pick up a story from Nakpanduri in the Northern Region and come and sell it in Accra at a profit. The present state of the Agency is not too good but there is a glimmer of hope in the horizon as the Ministry of Public Sector reform is set to retool the Agency.

Yes there has been progress on many fronts. The Agency has moved from the use of telex machines and dropping news through commercial drivers to computers.

The Agency is the trendsetter, leading the way in changing the face of news reporting from the bland assembling of opinions or facts, to stories reflecting the pulse of the nation. next 50 years to Ghana @100.

Conrad C. Fink wrote in his book; "Strategic Newspaper Management" - "newspaper of the future will be the mirror image of the people hired today. A newspaper cannot rise above the quality of its employees, their morale, their sense of mission and their productivity" - this holds good for GNA and other media organizations as well.