SPEECH BY ALBERT KWABENA DWUMFOUR, PRESIDENT OF THE GHANA JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION, AT THE SWEARING-IN OF NEWLY-ELECTED NATIONAL EXECUTIVE MEMBERS OF THE GJA, HELD AT THE ACCRA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE, ON JULY 11, 2025
Your Excellency Prof Jane Nana Opoku-Agyemang, Vice President of the Republic of Ghana;
Your Lordship Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, Acting Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana;
Hon. Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Minister for Government Communication;
Ministers of State;
Members of Parliament;
Comrade Omar Osma Faruk, President of the Federation of African Journalists;
Members of the Diplomatic Corps;
Representatives of our partner institutions;
Former presidents of the Ghana Journalists Association;
Outgoing and incoming members of the GJA National Executive;
Colleagues in the media;
Communication and journalism students;
Invited guests;
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning to you all.
Although you have been officially welcomed already, I wish to take this opportunity to once again welcome you to the Accra International Conference Centre for this special ceremony. I wish to also take this opportunity to thank His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana, for showing big interest in this ceremony and for asking Her Excellency the Vice President, Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, to honour us with her presence this morning. Your Excellency, we are most grateful to you for coming. It may interest this august audience to know that His Excellency John Mahama is a member in good standing of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA). Logically, that simply means I am the President of the President of Republic of Ghana.
Your Excellency, kindly permit me to also thank the Acting Chief Justice, His Lordship Justice Paul Baffoe-Bonnie, for gracing the occasion and swearing in the new National Executive of the GJA. Upon our request at a very short notice, His Lordship the Acting Chief Justice graciously assigned superior court judges to swear in newly-elected regional executives across the country. My Lord, we are most grateful to you for granting our prayer and honouring us with your presence.
Your Excellency, on 30th June, 2025, members of the GJA went to the polls to elect new national and regional executives to serve for the next three years. The elections were very peaceful unlike our elections in 2022 which were held after two years of acrimony and legal dispute. That dragged the image of the Association into disrepute and retarded its progress significantly. The outgoing administration resolved that it would never happen again. So we committed ourselves to holding elections on schedule and putting our house in order, as we worked 24 hours around the clock. Thank God, we managed to reset the Association, and it did not happen again!
Your Excellency, this is no mean achievement, given what happened previously. That is why we are eternally grateful to the three-member GJA Elections Committee chaired by Peter Martey Agbeko, a journalist and PR Consultant. The other members are Beatrice Asamani Savage, the Director of Editorial at the Ghana News Agency, and Kwaku Owusu Peprah, Channel Manager of Joy News, one of the brands of Multimedia Group Limited. We also wish to thank the GJA Elections Dispute Adjudication Committee (EDAC) chaired by Zakaria Tanko Musah, lawyer and lecturer at the University of Media, Communications and Arts (UNiMAC). The other members are Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho of the Graphic Communications Group Limited and Benjamin Bano-Bio, the Director of Elections at the Electoral Commission. Furthermore, the GJA is grateful to the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Jean Mensa, for the tremendous support that ensured the success of the elections. Apart from delegating Mr Bano-Bio to serve on the EDAC, the EC Chair also assigned a Technical Advisor in the person of Samuel Kwaah to assist the GJA Elections Committee. Thank you, Mr Kwaah for your technical support.
Your Excellency, at this moment, it is in order to congratulate my new colleagues in the National Executive, as well as new regional executives, on their respective electoral victory. But let me hasten to add that in our joyous mood, we should also spare some thoughts for our colleagues on the other side of the divide who may be disappointed or are even pained because they did not win. Let us be mindful that they also deserve commendation for their role in ensuring this collective victory for the GJA. Indeed, we are all winners! I particularly want to extend my warmest compliments to Charles Mawusi for his boldness to contest for the presidency.
Your Excellency, now that elections are over, it is time to focus on the GJA agenda for the next three years – the agenda to promote the welfare and interests of journalists and other media practitioners in all their manifestations. In the past tenure, we worked hard for the rebirth, rebranding and reactivation of the GJA. Our task in this current administration will be to consolidate the gains and progress made so far and to break new grounds to further promote the welfare of members and the work we do. In that regard, we shall be committed to the following:
Welfare of Journalists
Your Excellency, the GJA is a welfare Association, and so the welfare of members will be the warfare of our administration. In that respect, we shall undertake a number of initiatives to safeguard the welfare of members. One of such initiatives is the Journalists Support Fund (JSF), a flagship intervention launched by the past administration. The objective of the Fund is to support members in respect of their healthcare and other critical needs. It will also cater for the needs of retiree members. Under the current administration, we shall make the Fund more active by appealing for support from Corporate Ghana and other institutions. We shall also set up a body to manage the Fund. May I use this opportunity to appeal to Corporate Ghana and our partner institutions to respond when we call in order to make this noble project more successful.
Attacks Against Journalists
Your Excellency, on the night of December 7, 2020, Pius Asiedu Kwanin, a 29-year-old student of the Ghana Institute of Journalism and son of a single-parent woman who lives on subsistent farming at Goaso in the Ahafo Region, was shot in the leg while covering the collation of election ballots at the Ablekuma Central Constituency in Accra. Pius suffered severe injury, that is, an 8cm bone loss in the lower part of his leg. Since then (four-and-half years), he has undergone five surgeries at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital and Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in which two of his hip bones were removed as support for his graft. He has also visited St Joseph Orthopedic Hospital, Blue Valley Specialist Hospital and Focos Orthopedic Hospital, as well as staying for one year in a traditional home for herbal treatment. But all these have not restored his good health. This is what Pius tells us:
“I go through serious pain on daily basis most especially during times that the weather gets cold or when I walk for a longer distances.”
Now that the weather is cold, you can imagine how he feels. It is instructive to note that Pius did not commit any crime; he was only a victim of electoral violence that broke at the collation centre. The gunman was said to be a security operative at the Jubilee House at the time. Today, the perpetrator is walking free and enjoying life, while Pius is walking with clutches and enduring pain. Pius has now been referred to a hospital in India for prescribed surgery called Bone Transport Surgery at an estimated cost of $35,000. Ghana does not have the technology to perform that surgery locally. He needs our help.
Your Excellency, I want to use this opportunity to make a passionate appeal to the government and philanthropists to come to the aid of Pius and support him to go and salvage his health in India. Pius should have completed school in 2022 and start life, but he has deferred his programme of study for two years already in order to seek treatment. He did not commit any crime; he was practicing journalism in service to the nation. And journalism is not a crime!
Your Excellency, Pius is only one out of many cases of attack and brutality against journalists and other media practitioners that have not been addressed by the state, especially the Police in terms of prosecution. y. We have heard of the government’s good intentions to compensate victims of past elections. We appeal to the government to include journalists who have suffered attacks and brutality in the past, but whose cases have become cold. In due course, the GJA will compile a list of all those victims in our fraternity and present same to the government for inclusion in the compensation.
Your Excellency, any form of attack against journalists or the media must not be tolerated by any civilised society. That is why we must roundly condemn such attacks whenever they occur. This administration will continue to walk the path of the previous administration in dealing with attacks against journalists. We shall marshal all forces within our power to fight against such attacks. Among other strategies, we shall explore legal means, dialogue, education and activism to address these challenges. We shall also seek the cooperation of all state and non-state actors in that regard. The Police in particular are quick at criminalising free speech through the application of inimical laws against journalists, but they are very slow at finding and prosecuting perpetrators of assault against journalists. We urge the Police to turn over a new leaf.
Capacity-building & Professional Development
Your Excellency, capacity-building and professional development are core objectives of the GJA. Their delivery has become even more compelling, given the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technologies on journalism and the media in general. We need to keep our members abreast of these development by way of training. We shall be strongly committed to delivering on this mandate for the benefit of our enterprise. We appeal to our local and foreign partners to support us in that cause.
Review of GJA Constitution
Your Excellency, 20 years after the last review and implementation of the GJA Constitution, the time has come for another review to ensure that our Constitution aligns with current trends and demands in the media. Apart from that, many provisions in the GJA Constitution 2004 have been more harmful than helpful to the cause of the Association. That is why we believe it is time to review our Constitution. In that belief, we shall immediately set up a GJA Constitution Review Committee to undertake that exercise. We urge all members to contribute to the process’s success when the time comes.
Five Key Pillars of My Second-Term Vision:
Your Excellency, I’m also determined to pursue what I term my five key pillars as I begin my second term. This was a central campaign promise, and I intend to fulfil it with the support of my able national executives. These pillars are;
- Finalizing Better Working Conditions for Journalists:
- Comprehensive Insurance & Enhanced Welfare Support:
- Boosting Professional Development Through Scholarships:
- Strengthening Regional Journalism Through Reorganization:
- Unwavering Commitment to Press Freedom & Journalists’ Safety:
GJA Membership Cards
Your Excellency, one of the significant achievements of the past administration was the issuance of GJA Membership ID cards. I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation to the Executive Chairman of the KGL Group, Alex Apau Dadey, for his unwavering support. It is essential to note that the issuance of the GJA Membership cards was a commitment we couldn’t have fulfilled without his timely intervention.
Your Excellency, before I take my seat, it is important to honor those who deserve recognition. I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to the immense success of my first term, especially the outgoing executives. Their commitment, hard work, and zeal were instrumental in making my first term a resounding success.
Your Excellency, I ask for your permission to invite them to the stage for due acknowledgment:
Linda Asante Agyei, outgoing Vice President
Kofi Yeboah, outgoing General Secretary
Audrey Dekalu, outgoing Treasurer
I firmly believe my new executives will provide the same needed support and commitment to ensure our second term is equally successful.
I want to emphasize that the success or otherwise of the GJA depends on all its members. So, although we have been elected into office today, it does not mean the burden is ours only to carry. We all need to put our hands on the wheelbarrow to carry the brick and mortar for the building of the GJA we all want.
Your Excellency the Vice President; my Lord the Acting Chief Justice, distinguished invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your kind attention.
