The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, has expressed worry about the current power outages experienced nationwide and its impact on media houses.
According to him, the inconsistent power supply is negatively affecting the international standing of Ghanaian journalists.
Speaking at the World Press Freedom Day 2024 event at the Koforidua Technical University, the GJA President outlined instances of some broadcast equipment being damaged due to power outages.
He indicated that media houses are now faced with the challenge of procuring costly generators amidst rising fuel prices.
“One key feature of WPFD is the release of the global press freedom index by Reporters Without Borders, which gauges press freedom performances of countries. The introduction of economic indicators in the computation of the index has contributed to lowering Ghana’s performance.
“That is why we are worried about the current erratic electricity supply that is eroding the economic fortunes of media houses. Reports suggest damage to broadcast equipment as a result of the erratic power outages. Media houses now have to grapple with the procurement of expensive generators at a time when fuel prices are skyrocketing,” he stated.
Mr. Dwumfour further called on the Electricity Company of Ghana to provide a load management timetable to prevent economic losses for media houses.
“We want to add our voice to the numerous calls on the Electricity Company of Ghana to provide a timetable on electricity supply to save media houses from economic losses that would ultimately affect the press freedom ranking of the country,” he said.
Meanwhile, the energy minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh has said that the current situation is not dumsor but ‘dum sie sie,’ to wit temporary outages for repairs.
According to him, ‘dumsor’ only occurred under former president Mahama’s leadership.