Graphic, CIKOD to sensitise media to GM food
A media sensitisation workshop on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) is to be held on January 16, 2014 in Accra.
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Thirty journalists from selected media organisations will take part in the one-day event, which is a partnership between the Graphic Communications Group Limited and the Centre for Indigenous Knowledge and Organisational Development (CIKOD). Presentations on both sides of the debate would be made after which discussions would be held.
A Deputy Director of CIKOD, Mr Wilberforce Laate, explained to the Daily Graphic that the sensitisation workshop was crucial, since it would equip journalists with the requisite knowledge of GMOs.
According to him, the media is the vehicle for the dissemination of information so if journalists are not adequately informed, it is possible they will pass on the little they know to their readers and audience.
“We think that the media should be exposed to all the facets of the debate,” he stated.
The Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Ransford Tetteh, said the workshop was important because journalists needed knowledge and enlightenment on the subject before they could take the frontline role of informing people about the pros and cons of GMOs.
He explained that since journalists set the agenda for society, they must be adequately informed in order to keep the gate to avoid the situation where some elements would try to hijack the media for propaganda.
Mr Tetteh added that the debate on the GMOs was taking many twists with civil society groups emerging to support or oppose GMOs and that was why there was the need for a corps of well-informed journalists to lead the debate on the subject.
