Last week Monday, September 1, marked the 20th anniversary of my employment by the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) after my two years national service and a year as a stringer.
I did not celebrate the day. However, I took the opportunity to reflect on the path I had traversed as Journalist, especially since I was first employed as a reporter.
By God’s grace I have lived to see this day and since last week, I have been mirroring my life as a journalist; whether I have lived up to expectation and how I had affected society through my articles and news reports.
I do not want to pass judgement on my own self but I know deep within me that I have not failed in my career as a journalist.
People may have different views but the generality of the issue is that I have accomplished much and also contributed to shaping public opinion in my community and the country at large.
One significant thing I did during the period was to take inventory of the type of superiors I had worked with and continue to work with.
I realised that during that 20-year period, I had done great stories and interviewed high-profile personalities including a former President, John Agyekum Kufuor (three occasions); the late Vice-President Alhaji Aliu Mahama and the sitting President John Dramani Mahama ( thrice).
Other big wigs included politicians, academics, entrepreneurs, artistes, football stars/sportsmen, as well as a huge number of the down-trodden.
While reflecting on my strengths and weaknesses as a media practitioner, the issue of the assault on my colleague, Dan Kenu of the Ashanti Regional Office of the GCGL popped up.
Initially, the report of the assault on this fine journalist was scanty and, therefore, created some mixed feelings but later when the truth was told, I realised that the thugs who descended on the Don Papa, allegedly led by Baffour Gyan, the elder brother of Black Stars’ Skipper, Asamoah Gyan, have woefully displayed stack ignorance about the role of media practitioners in society.
The media mirror the society and translate events that have taken place to those who were not present in order for them to get a mental picture of what really transpired.
I, therefore, consider the conduct of Baffour Gyan and his cohorts who attacked the journalist who posed a harmless question to his brother at a press conference organised by the Ghana Football Association, prior to the Black Stars’ encounter with the Cranes of Uganda, as the highest level of absurdity.
This is the second time Baffour Gyan has assaulted a journalist from the Graphic stables. Sometime in 2008, when Ghana hosted the African Cup of Nations, he verbally assaulted the Assistant Editor of the Graphic Showbiz, Ms Adwoa Serwaa Bonsu, by using unprintable words due to a story the paper had published about some senior members of the Black Stars and the women/girls they were going out with.
Baffour Gyan’s brother, Asamoah, the Baby Jet, was said to be dating a former Miss Ghana and this provoked Baffour and he went to town.
It is sad that media practitioners have been taken for granted and treated shabbily in this country, with people who know nothing about media work feeling they can direct and tell media men/women what to do.
Media practitioners are fallible, just like other professionals, but it is sad the way these practitioners are lampooned over trivialities. Otherwise, how could somebody like Baffour Gyan and the likes of him dare touch a seasoned reporter like Dan Kenu?
We should be careful in our actions lest we erode the gains that have been made under the Fourth Republic in which Ghana has been touted as one of the countries in the world that enjoy the most freedoms.
The overwhelming condemnation of the barbaric act of Baffour Gyan by most media-related institutions and organisations is enough to signal to all and sundry, especially those with the penchant for hurting journalists who discharge their duties without provocation, to reconsider their actions whenever they are tempted to assault any media person.
