The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Kwabena Dwumfour, has expressed the association’s com­mitment to the fight against illegal mining, known in the local parlance as ‘galamsey.’

According to him, the association was worried that forest reserves, wa­ter bodies and farm lands were being destroyed and degraded, all in the name of gold mining.

He said this when he addressed a press conference on issues affecting the nation and welfare of Journalists.

The GJA president indicated that in the mining communities, law and order were crumbling with impunity, with associated human right abuses, adverse and forced possessions of individual lands and farms while the decentralised administrative arms of government and traditional authori­ties seem to be helpless.

Turning his attention to assurances given by President John Dramani Ma­hama to fight illegal mining, the GJA President stressed that those assur­ances were welcomed, but urged the President to honour them.

“We welcome the assurances and commitment of President Mahama to­wards the fight against galamsey and it is our prayer that he will not relent or give up but honour his promise of stopping illegal mining in the coun­try,” Mr Dwumfour emphasised.

He pledged the GJA’s support for the government in curbing the men­ace.

“We reiterate our condemnation of all illegal mining activities and demand urgent steps to be taken to tackle the issues head-on. There should be strict enforcement of all mining laws and regulations with­out any concessions, as well as the imposition of maximum sentences on offenders. This is a reliable approach to addressing this issue,” Mr Dwum­four added.

“The GJA urges the media to maintain the galamsey issue at the forefront until the menace was eliminated. As indicated in previous press conferences, we will not stop highlighting the issues until Galamsey stops,” he urged.

The National Executives of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) last Thursday paid a cour­tesy call on the Editor of The Spec­tator, Mrs Georgina N. M Quaittoo in Accra.

The meeting discussed the welfare of journalists and ways to improve their living conditions and challenges facing major media houses including the New Times Corporation (NTC), publishers of The Spectator and The Ghanaian Times newspapers.

The president of the GJA, Mr Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, hinted that the executives of the association will meet the President, John Dramani Mahama, to discuss a few matters in the media industry.

According to Mr Dwumfour, at an earlier engagement with the Presi­dent, he demonstrated his commit­ment to improve the living conditions of journalists and ensure that state-owned media houses were well-equipped.

“So we have come here to know at first hand some of your challenges in terms of production, attrition rate, and the form of support you need from the government,” he said.

He said it was common knowledge that, in recent times a lot of the corporation’s staff had resigned while others are furthering their education.

He indicated that the challenges facing the state-owned-media houses were common after touring the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Ghana Broadcast­ing Corporation (GBC) and Graphic Communications Group.

Mr Dwumfour asked the Editors of the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator to present a paper on challenges con­fronting the corporation and support needed from government “to bring the corporation back to life.”

Responding, Mrs Quaittoo said the challenges affecting the corporation were numerous, saying, for over 30 years, the corporation had not re­ceived any support from governments.

She explained that the corporation pays itself, saying “if we don’t gen­erate enough revenue then workers salary will delay.

Mrs Quaittoo also said retooling the corporation is also a major challenge.

She said due to the challenges confronting the corporation, most of the staff have resigned leaving the newsrooms virtually empty, while some subscribers are also not paying on time.

Present at the meeting were the GJA Vice President, Linda Asante Agyei; General Secretary, Kofi Yeboah; Public Relations Officer Rebecca Ekpe; Organising Secretary Dominic Hlordzi and Treasurer Audrey Dekalu.

 By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu