Guest Editor: Elizabeth Ohene returns to Graphic August 27
Former acting Editor of the Daily Graphic, Ms Elizabeth Ohene, returns to the paper as Guest Editor, many years after leaving that role.
Ms Ohene returns to this familiar role on August 27, the third personality to serve as guest editor in the series initiated as part of activities to mark the 70th anniversary of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) and its flagship brand, the Daily Graphic.
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Although the GCGL has five other newspapers and two online portals, the Daily Graphic is the oldest, being the first to be published with the setting up of the business.
Guest Editor series
The initiative took off last May and has seen the Managing Director of Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited and President of the Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB), Mr Alhassan Andani, and the General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw Baah, appearing as the first and the second guest editors, respectively.
As guest editor, Ms Ohene is expected to chair the weekly morning conference.
Many other high-profile personalities have been pencilled in for the role in the run-up to the climax of the Platinum Jubilee celebration of the group in October.
Who’s Ms Ohene?
Ms Ohene's association with the Daily Graphic began in 1967 when she went to work with the paper as a Reporter, rising through the ranks to become a Staff Writer, Columnist, Leader Writer and acting Editor of the Daily Graphic and The Mirror, before her exit in 1982.
When she returned home from the United Kingdom, where she had relocated for over two decades, she also had the opportunity to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the GCGL.
Prior to her appointment as a Minister of State in President J.A. Kufuor’s administration in 2007, she was the Government Spokesperson when the New Patriotic Party assumed power after the 2001 elections.
In 1986, she solely founded the Talking Drum Publications, and until 1986, she was the Publisher/Editor of the company, which published a weekly news magazine on West African Affairs.
Stint at BBC
Ms Ohene also worked for the BBC World Service, London, UK, where she began as a producer of Radio Programmes, then successively became a presenter, senior producer on the World Service and British Domestic Radio, Researcher and Columnist on the Focus on African Magazine and Deputy Editor in the African Service for English daily programmes and in charge of the operational budget.
She also edited the award-winning of Focus on Africa magazine.
She also reported regularly for the BBC from various parts of Africa and was the resident correspondent in South Africa from 1993 to 1994 during the transition from apartheid to the first democratic election.
She still writes regularly for the BBC.
Activities
Ms Ohene's professional activities include being a member of the International Women Media Foundation, which actively promotes women's competency and leadership in the media.
The foundation has established an Africa Women's Media Centre in Dakar, Senegal, where courses are run for African women in the media according to their needs.
Education
The Daily Graphic columnist attended the University of Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, where she obtained a certificate in Mass Communication.
The US State Department-sponsored programme helped her undertake a course involving travel around the USA and gave her work experience with newspapers in three States in 1971.
She was a Press Fellow from January to June 1983 at the Wolfswon College, University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
Born Elizabeth Akua Ohene on January 24, 1945, she attended Mawuli School in Ho between 1958 and 1964 and gained admission to the University of Ghana in 1964, graduating with a B.A. (Hons) degree in English in 1967.