Graphic Reporter apologises to Parliament (audio)
The Daily Graphic’s Parliamentary Reporter, Mr Mark Anthony Vinorkor, has apologised unequivocally to Parliament for inaccurate stories he wrote in the Thursday, July 14 and Friday July 15, 2016 issues of the paper.
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At the Parliament’s Privileges Committee, where he was summoned to appear Tuesday, he apologised to the House for writing a story that was in contempt of the House and asked for their forgiveness.
Parliament summons
Parliament referred Mr Vinorkor to its Privileges Committee over stories that suggested that the House had made changes in the Constitutional Instrument CI 94 which it had no powers to do.
Giving the order, the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Adjaho, directed that the accreditation of Mr Vinorkor be withdrawn to stop him from reporting from Parliament pending the outcome of the report of the Privileges Committee.
However, after a careful explanation on some of the proceedings in the Parliament, the Speaker advised the Daily Graphic to retract the story as it suggested that Parliament had bad motives and had made changes to the CI 94 which it had no powers to do.
Privileges Committee
At the Privileges Committee sitting yesterday chaired by the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, Mr Vinorkor was given the opportunity to make comments on the publication in question and Mr Vinorkor said “Mr Chairman I wish to render an unqualified apology to the leadership of Parliament and to the entire House. After my attention was drawn to the stories, I have realised that I cannot justify them. I must admit that I do not know all the processes so in the cause of my work I reported wrongly. I want Parliament to forgive me for the mistake that I made”.
Listen to the proceedings here {mp3}daily_graphic_appears_before_parliament_privileges_committee{/mp3}
Accompanied by the Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), publishers of the Daily Graphic, Ing. Kenneth Ashigbey, the Director, Newspapers, Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh and the Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Ransford Tetteh, Mr Vinorkor implored the House to forgive him for his act.
Ing. Ashigbey, when given the opportunity, also reiterated to the committee, the reporter of the Daily Graphic’s unqualified apology to the House.
The Chairman of the committee, in consultation with the members present, accepted the apology, saying they would meet in-camera and draft their report and give recommendations to the House after which they would get back to the newspaper.
The Management of GCGL on Thursday, July 21, 2016 apologised to Parliament for the publication.
• Writer's email: [email protected]
