Newspapers Are an Endangered Species in Ghana — High Commissioner Harruna Attah
Ghana’s High Commissioner to Namibia and Botswana, H.E. Abdul-Rahman Harruna Attah, has called for stronger self-regulation within Ghana’s media industry, cautioning against government interference as a solution to declining content quality. Speaking with Business Outlook Africa,on the state of the media landscape, the veteran journalist, publisher and author stated that professional associations within the industry currently have no bite, noting that questionable content often goes unchecked despite being in bad taste. “There’s so much around but so very little quality sadly yeah so very little quality in our media. It has to go with the professionals i realise we have um professional associations that have no bite,until the professionals will sit up and insist.And see the government can’t do much the government when it does something to interfere will be called being anti-media yeah.” he stated Abdul-Rahman Harruna Attah, also described newspapers as an endangered species in Ghana, attributing their decline to a broader lack of reading culture within society. “You see, the society we serve is not very sophisticated, so to speak. They don’t buy newspapers.We don’t love reading. That’s the thing. We don’t like reading.We don’t read. So newspapers are an endangered species.,” he stated. Harruna Attah cautioned that the trend reflects a deeper problem with Ghana’s educational system, stating that children must be motivated to read not merely to pass examinations, but to expand and open their minds. “So we have to improve our educational system. When you go round and round, it comes down to the educational system. To motivate our children to read.Not necessarily to pass exams, but just to read, to expand their minds.” He added The High Commissioner also added that even though he finds Technology and AI as an interesting development and part of human development,we cannot afford to overly rely on it citing inaccuracy in some situations as an extreme caution. “So AI, I find very, very interesting.But we can’t also rely on it for everything we do.Because sometimes AI gets it wrong, really, really wrong. And that’s when the problems start coming.” The Commissioner added He therefore urged media practitioners to embrace AI as a tool to advance the cause of their work, arguing that it represents an inevitable dimension of human progress that cannot be ignored. “The time has come, and we have to make use of it. I think AI is part of human development. So we have to hold it tight,” he cautioned.
