President John Dramani Mahama has urged journalists to avoid what he described as an unnecessary pursuit of scandals, cautioning that excessive media confrontation could distract his government from delivering on its development agenda.
Speaking at the 30th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Media Awards in Accra on Saturday, November 7, the President called on journalists to distinguish between holding public officials accountable and adopting what he described as an adversarial approach to journalism.
He expressed concern about what he described as excessive media aggression, particularly instances where journalists publicly confront ministers over alleged inconsistencies and demand explanations.
“We must also draw the line where journalism becomes adversarial. As a trained journalist myself, I believe that it pushes the limits of media zealotry when a journalist publicly challenges a minister to call into his show to expose him over a so-called discrepancy that the journalist has discovered.”
He added that journalists and government officials must work together in the interest of the public, stressing that his administration would continue to respect the media’s watchdog role.
“This government that I lead will uphold the media mandate to hold government to account. But it distracts attention from the people’s business when we split hairs in a deliberate search for scandals where none exist,” he said.
His remarks come against the backdrop of controversy over the government’s GH¢49.7 million expenditure on evacuating 1,964 Ghanaians from South Africa following a fresh wave of xenophobic attacks.
The Minority in Parliament has raised questions about the expenditure, alleging inconsistencies in records of payments made under the GH¢5,000 reintegration grant and GH¢500 transport allowance provided to each evacuee.
It has since called for an independent audit of the exercise and demanded accountability from the Foreign Affairs Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.
