3 sponsor GJA Awards

THE GHANA Journalists Association (GJA) has received sponsorship packages from three companies ahead of its 16th Annual GJA Awards ceremony.
Multichoice Ghana and Plan Ghana presented a cheque of GH¢3000 each while rLG Communications pledged an amount of GH¢2000 and other items towards the event to be announced later.
Vice President of the GJA, Affail Monney, in his remarks, observed that the media plays a significant role apart from informing, educating and entertaining the public, saying the media has played a role in the country’s journey towards attaining democracy.
He however noted that the media faces certain challenges which the GJA is helping to resolve such as poor standards and ethical response as well as loose entry into the profession.
“This is making standards in the service of journalism abysmal,” he noted
Mr Monney however said that it is not enough to bemoan the poor standard of journalism but rather reward the outstanding ones
Cecil Sunkwa-Mills, General Manager of Multichoice, noted that his outfit supports journalism in Ghana and Africa as a whole therefore it will continue to support the GJA awards ceremony.
He said the company’s contribution must be directed towards honoring a winner in the education category.
Project Manager of Plan Ghana, Shadrack Frimpong for his part, called on journalists to help bring child rights issues into the limelight.
He indicated that his outfit’s contribution is for sponsorship of the human rights reporting category with respect to child rights issues.
Mr Monney lauded the three companies for their support and called on other corporate institutions to emulate their example.
“We thank the sponsors and will extend invitations to other corporate bodies to identify themselves with this gesture to improve journalism,” he added.
This years’ award ceremony is scheduled for August 20, 2011 at the Banquet Hall, State House under the theme: “Giving Impetus to Democracy and Development in Africa: The role of Investigative Journalism.”

GJA Treasurer, Linda Asante-Agyei receiving a dummy cheque from Project Manager of Plan Ghana, Shadrack Frimpong. Looking on is Vice President of the GJA, Affail Monney