The Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbn is worried over how politicians seem to be stifling press freedom and freedom of expression.
He said there was a need to fight this attitude of politicians
“Press freedom and freedom of expression seem to have been clogged by politicians and we need to fight it.” and we need to fight it,” he said when he paid a courtesy call on the management of Media General in Accra on Thursday, June 29.
Mr Bagbin further said that the legislature was reviewing its Standing Orders and also introducing new ones that will allow media practitioners to cover sittings of committees in the house.
This, he said, would require that media houses increase the number of their parliamentary correspondents to be able to cover all these meetings.
He said “we are bringing new rules, we call them Standing Orders, in the House we are creating new committees or additional committees and we are also opening up those committee meetings to all media.”
The Group Chief Executive Officer of Media General (TV3, 3FM, Onua TV, Onua FM, Akoma FM, Connect FM and other units) Beatrice Agyemang welcomed the Speaker to the premises of the company.
Madam Agyemang told the Speaker that Media General has an editorial committee that scrutinizes news content before they are churned out through its channels.
She said these when she welcomed the Speaker of Parliament to the premises of the media conglomerate at Adesawe, Kanda in Accra when the Speaker paid a courtesy call on the management on Thursday, June 29.
Madam Agyemang indicated that Mr Bagbin’s visit was the first time a Speaker of Parliament visited Media General.
“TV3 is number 1 in the ranking, ” Madam Agyeman told the Speaker.
She added “We have a strong editorial committee to ensure that we are very balanced, transparent and fair in our reportage, every news item you see goes through scrutiny.”
“I am hoping that this is the beginning of a good relationship,” she stressed.
