Jefferson Kwamena Sackey, a Deputy Director of Communications in the President's Office, has urged media outlets in the nation to provide appropriate working conditions, particularly remuneration, to help journalists achieve professionalism.
He voiced concern about low or no salary, non-existing terms of employment, and the lack of payment of social security in many media houses as some of the causes that harmed the country's media practitioners' quality and professionalism.
Mr Sackey, who has vast experience in journalism, was speaking with the Daily Graphic about Ghana's current ranking by Reporters Without Borders.
He noted that the aforementioned issues were among the factors contributing to Ghana's downward spiral in the Reporters Without Borders rankings.
"The decline in Ghana's ratings, as documented by Reporters Without Borders, cannot be entirely attributed to the government's alleged antagonism against journalists in Ghana.
This administration has purposefully put in place numerous frameworks that provide journalists access to information, like as the Right to Information Act, which was passed by Parliament in 2019 and signed into law by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in May of that year," he said.
Mr Sackey claimed that no big anti-journalist incidents happened during the survey's era, but he was convinced that the economic part of the study was what contributed to Ghana's rating.
Index
"As the contract indicated, journalists are not highly compensated. He added, "That component of the study is the gravamen of this whole brouhaha around the survey results."
Ghana fell 30 places in the 2018 Press Freedom Index, which tracks media developments in 180 nations. Ghana did well in categories such as the Legislative Indicator (81.42%) and the Social Indicator (79.64%), but only averagely in others.
66.61 percent for the political indicator and 62.25 percent for the security indicator. Ghana was pushed to 60th rank by the new Economic Context, which was introduced in this year's report, with a score of 47.22 percent, down from 30th place last year.
Context
Mr Sackey commented on the rankings, stating that the dynamics had altered as a result of the introduction of a new context in the Reporters Without Borders poll, which resulted in Ghana dropping 30 positions.
"If you look at the background that Reporters Without Borders has provided this time, I am talking to the economic situation, you and I know that we are practicing journalists... Please inform me if the Ghanaian media pays decent rates and salaries.
Mr Sackey stated that "the majority of individual journalists in Ghana are not economically empowered." "It's not going to happen." As a result, having these kinds of things in place alters the dynamics, affects everything... The media industry is struggling financially. So, the main issue we have to ask ourselves is, "How can we as a country tackle this problem?" Mr. Sackey inquired.
He stated that the government was taking a number of efforts to enhance the media sector's economic situation, including the implementation of the Digital Migration system by the Ministry of Communications and the National Communications Authority to economically empower the media.