Seth J. Bokpe's Ghana Newsreel

The  Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has criticised some journalists for the manner they have used the WeakiLeaks reports to attack and vilify perceived political opponents. He said the recent WikiLeaks cables had accentuated the media warfare and put the discussion of pressing national issues to the background, saying that, “nothing in this country matters anymore”. Mr Ransford Tetteh, the GJA President (second left) leading the Vice President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama (1st right) and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast who was the chairperson for the occasion to the high table.  “Reprinting the judicious gossips from the US Embassy cables provides the media that is already polarised on partisan lines with enough ammunition and fire power to pound one’s opponent for the rest of the year,” he said. Mr Mahama was speaking at the 16th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Awards held at the Banquet Hall of the State House in ...

The Makola 31st December Market was on Monday thrown into a state of pandemonium when members of the Local Textile Designers Task Force, which went to the market to seize what were considered illegal prints, were chased away by the traders. Numbering more than 15, the members of the task force, some of whom had earlier impounded some of the textiles, were chased out of the market by the traders amid insults and heckling. The task force was established in 2010 and given the mandate to monitor the movement of smuggled fabrics, target relevant warehouses and seize for destruction pirated and smuggled textile prints to deter the dealers and others who may be tempted to deal in such goods. Speaking to the Daily Graphic, a trader whose name is being withheld, said the team arrived, at the market at about 9:00.a.m and, without any permission, entered some of the shops and started pulling out clothes. The woman, who said she had lost three pieces in an earlier raid, state...

The Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) has maintained its dominance of the media landscape by sweeping eight awards announced by the Ghana Journalists Association Monday. While the Daily Graphic was nominated for an institutional award, seven journalists within the fold of the GCGL were also selected for the awards ceremony slated for September 9, 2011 at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Accra. The nominees from the GCGL are as follows: Lucy Adoma Yeboah/Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho for a joint award, Kofi Yeboah, Charles Benoni Okine, Naa Lamiley Bentil, William Asiedu ( The Mirror ) and Vicky Wereko-Andoh, a columnist of the Daily Graphic. Another award won by journalists of the GCGL was labelled as Team Graphic because the article was written by five journalists. They are Kofi Yeboah, Emmanuel Bonney, Victor Kwawukume, Vincent Amenueveve and Nana Konadu Agyeman. Other award winners from the various media houses include: last year’s Journalist of the Year, Sa...

The activities of some men of God have come under scrutiny in recent times following reported cases of scandals that have rocked the clergy. While some of them are in jail for these activities, others are battling their cases in court or are being investigated by the law enforcement agencies on suspicion of various crimes. Although the leadership of the church in Ghana condemns the activities of these so-called men of God, they are unable to prescribe any common antidote for resolving the crisis. The Chairman of the Christian Council, Most Rev Professor Emmanuel Asante, has called for legislation to compel churches to be affiliated to the different Christian groups without infringing on their rights. However, the Ghana Pentecostal Council and the National Christian Charismatic Churches think that there is no need for a legislation but that Christian leadership should promote the concept of affiliation to ensure checks and balances. The behaviour of people describe...

The decision of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital authorities to fake the death of one of its patients proved to be the bait that drew her family to the hospital, months after she had been abandoned there. Soon after they were informed of the death of Augustina Mensah, 25, the family responded swiftly by dispatching family members armed with a coffin to convey the supposed corpse of their kinswoman home for a befitting funeral. The family was said to have arrived at the DOVVSU head office in Accra to finish the paperwork authorising them to go for the supposed dead Augustina but it was not to be. After hours of waiting and sensing that they could be in trouble with the law, some of the family members were said to have disappeared with the coffin while two others were led to the hospital. Augustina was said to have been taken to the hospital by officials of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) and the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) when she was ...

Mourners from all walks of life on Saturday turned up at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra to bid farewell to Sammy Okaitey, the News Editor of the Daily Graphic who died in April 2011. Among the personalities who attended the ceremony are the Nii Armah Ashietey; Greater Accra Regional Minister, Nii Nortey Duah; Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Alex Segbefia; a Deputy Chief of Staff, Professor Kwesi Yankah; the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Mr O.B. Amoah, MP for Aburi-Nsawam; and Alhaji M.N.D Jawula, former President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), and Mr Fred Pappoe, Vice-President of the GFA. Others are Ghana’s former Ambassador to Serbia, Dr Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe;former WBC champion, Barima Azumah Nelson; Coaches Sam Arday and Francis Oti Akenten and a host of media practitioners, including Mr Kabral Blay-Amihere, Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), and a former Managing Director (MD) of the GCGL, Mr Mohammed Ibrahim A...

With four days to go for the national delegates congress of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Sunyani, the battlelines for the party’s flagbearership slot has been drawn. After weeks of campaigning and overtures, the two contenders, President John Evans Atta Mills and former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, are set to take their case to the delegates to settle a fiercely anticipated battle of thumbs to determine the party’s presidential candidate for the 2012 election. This is the first time a sitting Ghanaian President will have to win his party’s nomination through the ballot via a keen internal contest. The convention had been for the ruling party to acclaim a sitting President for a second term. But the soul-mate of the founder of the NDC, Nana Konadu, has decided to torpedo that convention as she pits her strength against President Mills’s as the first female to contest the flagbearership of the NDC. Reports of threats an...