The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Affail Monney, has given assurances that the transformation of the Association into a Union is purely to improve the lives of journalists and has no other ill-motives.
Speaking at the inauguration of the newly-elected GJA Executives and Awards Committee, he stated that, the union initiative, which has been criticized by some persons, has a specific goal to make the lives of journalists better.
“There is nothing 419 about our union baby which has been incubating since a resolution to that effect was passed during the term of my predecessor, Ransford Tetteh, on 10th December, 2013. …the point can hardly be articulated that unionization imposes a huge responsibility on us to meet at all costs the industrial and professional needs of journalists. We shall not flinch from achieving this twin objective.”
“Our immediate focus is on re-organisation of the chapters. … Other priority areas are investment and fund-raising, constitutional review, ethics and disciplinary council; as well as professional and welfare committees which will hopefully deliver change. The GJA constitution, in particular, is bleeding profusely from blatant violations of specific stipulations. The time to stanch that blood flow is now. Our policies and programs will never be Accra-centric but national in scope. Simply put, the regions shall receive their fair share of the GJA pie,” Mr Monney added.
Affail Money further charged the six newly-elected executives to put behind them all the “regrettable pickle into which we plunged this great union” while promising to “offer sacrificial leadership with utmost humility.”
Dr. Dartey, as Chairperson of the Awards Committee constituted for the 2017 GJA Awards, promised a clean, fair and transparent selection and awarding process.
“The one marker for success of the GJA Awards is integrity. Without integrity, the entire awards scheme goes down. The reputation of the committee members is critical. …on behalf of my committee, I am promising everyone gathered that we are going to do this work with the very highest level of integrity you can imagine …and we’ll give you some of the best of the best from the entries we’ve received,” she pledged.
The inauguration of the newly-elected GJA Executives and Awards Committee was held at the Ghana International Press Centre, and was attended by numerous journalists and media personnel from across the country.
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By: Akosua Ofewaa Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana