As part of its efforts to promote professional journalism, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has constituted the Ghana chapter of what it calls the Eminent Media Persons Group (EMPG).
The group, made up of distinguished personalities in the Ghanaian media landscape, will be supporting the MFWA in diverse ways as part of efforts to improve professional standards and promote independent journalism in Ghana.
To start with, the members of the EMPG will be supporting MFWA’s project on promoting issues-based campaigning for peaceful elections. The group will, from July to November 2016, be engaging with owners and managers of radio stations in selected regions across the country.
Such engagements will be aimed at eliciting the support and commitment of owners and managers to have their respective media organisations exhibit high professional standards in their coverage of the electoral campaigning process ahead of the November polls.
“We are delighted to have such a group of distinguished media experts to support our work in promoting media development and professionalism in Ghana. We will be constituting similar groups in the other countries in the region, to help us deliver national level interventions in the respective countries across the West Africa region,” said Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the MFWA.
The five-member EMPG in Ghana is made up of the following:
Ms. Ajoa Yeboah-Afari
Ms. Ajoa Yeboah-Afari is an award winning journalist and is currently the Chairperson of Editors Forum, Ghana. She is a former President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and former Editor of The Ghanaian Times newspaper. She also has longstanding experience with international media having worked previously as a correspondent of the BBC, West African Magazine, the Inter Press Service, Women’s Feature Service, The Internationalist, Gemini News Service among many others. She attended the Ghana Institute of Journalism, where she graduated with distinction and the International Institute for Journalism in Berlin, Germany.
Prof. Amin Alhassan
Prof. Amin Alhassan is a Development Communication Expert. He is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Agribusiness and Communication Sciences at the University for Development Studies, Tamale. He previously taught at York University, McGill University and Concordia University, all in Canada, and at the International School of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland. Before becoming a fulltime academic, Prof. Alhassan worked as Upper West Regional correspondent of the Ghana News Agency and Radio Journalist at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Accra. He has been a civil society activist and has been instrumental in mobilizing communities in and around Tamale on community improvement activities.
Dr. Doris Yaa Dartey
Dr. Yaa Dartey is the immediate past Chairperson of Ghana’s biggest newspaper group, Graphic Communications group. She is also a current member of the state media regulator, the National Media Commission (NMC). She has taught media and communications programmes in several Universities including the University of Ghana; the University of Dayton (Ohio, USA), the Mount Mercy University (Iowa, USA), and the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ). Dr. Dartey has also been a practicing journalist with a presence in both television and newspapers. For the past seven years, she has been writing The Watchwoman column in The Spectator newspaper. She had hosted two of GTV’s flagship current affairs programmes, ‘Talking Point’ and ‘The Probe’ and a television debate preceding the 2012 general elections. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communications from the School of Communications Studies, University of Ghana, Legon; an MA in International Affairs, and a Ph.D. in Organisational Communications all from the Ohio University in the USA.
Mr. Kwasi Gyan Apenteng
Mr. Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng is the current Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Ghana’s statutory media regulatory body. He is also the current President of the Ghana Association of Writers. He has extensive journalism experience having practised journalism for nearly forty years as a reporter, editor, writer, teacher and trainer. He began work with the Daily Graphic newspaper in 1982 as a Staff Writer. He subsequently became Foreign News Editor and later the Acting Editor of the newspaper. He was subsequently appointed editor of the Mirror newspaper where he introduced new features which have endured till today. He also practiced in the United Kingdom where he co-founded Ghana News magazine before being invited to be the Deputy and later Acting Editor of the London-based West Africa magazine. He also founded and edited African Topics magazine, the only Pan-African publication dedicated to governance and human rights. He also served as a part time lecturer at Vauxhall College in London and the European University Centre for Peace Studies in Austria. He pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of Ghana and obtained his masters from the Westminster University in London.
Prof. Kwame Karikari
Prof. Karikari is an internationally recognised media advocate and scholar, editorial member of several international journals and a UNESCO consultant on journalism education. He is currently the Dean of the School of Communications Studies at the Wisconsin International University College. He has decades of experience as a media academic, media development expert and a media trainer. He founded and led the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) as its Executive Director from 1997 till 2013. He was once the Director of the School of Communications Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon. He also once served as the Director General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation.
