The Chairman of the National Media Commission, Mr.. Acquah Hayford has appealed to journalists in Ghana to give the commission the needed support to enable it to discharge its constitutional obligations efficiently, He was speaking at a cocktail reception organised by the commission for the press at the SSNIT guest house in Accra, GRi correspondent James Amoak who attended the function says the cocktail was virtually disrupted by a heavydown pour about an hour earlier. Inspite of the rain, journalists were there in their numbers, so also were important personalities like the Deputy Minister of communications, Mr.. John Mahama, the Deputy Chairman of the Electoral Commission in charge of operations, Mr. David Adeenze Kangah and Mr.. Fifi Hesse of the Public Services Commission. The new 18-member media commission was sworn-into office by the Chief Justice, Mr.. Justice I.K. Abban last month. The previous commission which was headed by Professor Kofi Kumadu of the University of Ghana Law Faculty, had only 15 members. Its 4-year tern ended in January. The life of the first commission was not all that rosy as members were sharply divided along political lines on thorny issues like the power to appoint 4 of chief executives of the state owned media, control of the frequency control and regulatory board and the independence of the state-owned media. The new commission had intended to use the cocktail to share its vision, mission and policy direction with members of the inky fraternity, unfortunately, due to the heavy rainfall that preceded the function, most members of the commission failed to turn up. The chairman of the commission was not happy about the situation and decided that another forum will be organised soon to enable members of the commission interact with the press. gri
