Media Practitioners Charged To Report More On Issues In Rural Areas

Abdallah Kassim, Exec. Dir. RUMNET

The Executive Director of the Rural Media Network (RUMNET), Mr. Abdellah Kassim has charged media practitioners in the Northern Region to move away from their conventional way of reporting from the urban centres and rather focus on highlighting issues pertaining in the rural areas, especially in this electioneering period.

Mr. Kassim was unhappy about the constant neglect of rural communities by politicians after seeking the mandates of the people in elections and thus, encouraged the media to adopt ways of giving lauder voices to the rural folks to attract the needed attention and demand for accountability from their leaders.

Speaking in an interview with Savannahnews in Tamale during a quarterly media review meeting organised by the Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA), Mr. Abdellah Kassim also the Publisher of The Advocate newspaper reminded the media of their core value as the voice of the voiceless and work in that direction.

He noted that about 85% of the people in the Northern Region lived in the rural areas where they were faced with poverty, lack of safe drinking water, quality road networks, health and educational facilities as well as other social amenities. Saying, “It is only the media who can let the politicians and the whole world know about the sufferings of these people”.

Even though Mr. Kassim acknowledged the under-resourced nature and challenges facing most of the media practitioners and their media stations in the Northern Region, coupled with the bad nature of the roads, he was certain that with self-determination or tenacity the media could still play efficient role in promoting rural development.

“We must always set the agenda for the people, even on our airwaves- we can design programmes that will promote the interest of the rural poor and probably not necessarily going to the hinterland. Radio for instance is a powerful tool and can travel far. So if we decide to set the agenda for the politician to act in accordance with the aspirations of the people, we will see that there will be limited or no poverty in our rural communities and there will be availability of basic social amenities", he told this blogger.

The Programme Officer of GDCA, Mrs. Rosemond Kumah also added her voice to the call on the media to prioritize rural reporting to bring the needed transformation in the lives of the rural poor. She also encouraged the media to partner with GDCA in their sustained efforts of promoting rural development.

Mrs. Kumah noted that apart from championing the rights of the rural poor, advocating for gender equality, fighting against poverty, promoting girl child education, food security, building the capacities of the rural people including the youth, women groups and traditional authorities to demand accountability and also participate in local governance, the GDCA had supported farmers in diverse ways to have good yields and to also improve on their economic situation.

She also hinted that GDCA would in the near future institute an Annual Award Scheme to honour journalists who had distinguished themselves very well in the field of development journalism in the North so as to encourage them to continue to highlight on issues affecting the rural poor.