The National Media Commission (NMC), has been tasked with the responsibility to ensure a unison of elections result by engaging a credible media team on the day of elections.

Emphasising the role of a local media in a national elections, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Member of Parliament for the Suame Constitituency, has called on the NMC to keenly engage and set up a guideline for the various media houses that would be reporting on this year’s elections to ensure credibility and a unison elections results.

This, He said, would ensure a peaceful elections result declaration in the upcoming December polls

The rationale for the Minister’s plea was actually borne out of some unpleasant incidents that took place in the past, causing chaos to some countries due to reports on falsehood information by a section of the media.

Citing similar incident which occurred in Nigeria some years back in 1993, when their local media failed to positively intervene in the declaration of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola as President, which led to his downfall.

“We do know that if the media had intervened in a positive way, what happened in Nigeria some time back, in the declaration of Abiola as President would have happened. At the time, it was left only to the independent national electoral commission to make the declaration.

Along the line, they halted and said they were having some challenges, then entered Arthur Nzeribe. He quickly took the matter to court to prevent the electoral commission from declaring the results and that was the end of Abiola”. He cited.

A similar instance, He recalled, also took place in Ghana during 2016 elections, where the media kept releasing results at the time the EC had stop releasing results, and this inspired the NDC to declare that they were in a comfortable lead.

The Minister wondered what could have happened if the results were not out already.

“Let’s go back to 2008. The media had been in the process of announcing some results. The NDC got inspired because the results that had come clearly pointed to the fact that they were winning. They took it to the street, mounted some pressure, results came ultimately to be released and indeed, it vindicated their position. Was the media wrong?. He questioned.

He said we shouldn’t push ourselves to the brink and think we’re safe out there, but should reconcile these positions.

According to the Minister, he is very much aware that some of the media quotes deliberately engage in churning out false informations, yet there are still credibile ones who are more focused on disseminating factual and authenticated informations.

He concluded that if the National Media Commission (NMC) could work closely with the Electoral Commission (EC) to engage those credible outfits that Ghanaians could attest to, to assist in coming out with results that the EC themselves have declared out at the various polling stations, it would only compliment the effort of the EC.

Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, made this humble appeal at the Ministry’s engagement with the Security Agencies and Political Parties on Monday October 26, 2020, in Accra.

The engagement which was themed “2020 Elections and its Implications for Peace and Security in Ghana, had participants drawn from the Leadership of Parliament, the Security Agencies, Political Parties representatives, Independent Governance Institutions, the National Security, Management and Staff of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, as well as the media

Source: Editor/www.newslinegh.com

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