Peace Council and Catholic Relief Services Trains Media Practitioners in Upper East Region.

By – Raymond wegwi

The Upper East Regional Peace Council in partnership with the Catholic Relief Services, (CRS) has organized two days training for media Practitioners in Bolgatanga as part of their project called ‘Prevention Of Violent Extremism Through Social Accountability’ (POVETSA) with the funding from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs . This phase two encounter is also aim at building the capacity of journalists in proper reporting, to prevent conflicts, and promotion of peace in the country especially this year’s 2024 general elections.
The Executive Secretary of the Upper East Regional Peace Council, Mr Ali Anankpieng who took the journalists through the concept of conflict, said understanding the dimensions of conflict will help the journalist know the evolution of that conflict,as at wether it has started from perception, feeling or action and with the consultation of the right sources of the conflict data ,will enable journalists give a proper analysis and good reportage. According to him every conflict has its history or dynamics as well as its factors and causes and as journalists, the need to know all the angles, either from economic, Social, Political, historical point of view before,to be able to give or write unbiased report, because the role of the media in promoting peace cannot be overemphasized.
The Chairman of the Upper East Regional Peace Council , Mr Issaka Sumaila, stated that, it is very necessary to bring the Media Practitioners back for more training especially this critical elections year where the stakes are very high to promote the sustainable peace in the region and as a Peace Council, the want to manage and prevent any occurrences. He said the few conflicts in the region are Chieftancy and lands disputes related not political conflicts except the ones which occurred in Bawku in the year 2000 and the Talensi by-election which is not different from other by-elections and therefore assured the people of the region, that when all the stakeholders play their roles well as usual, there will be peaceful election come Dec 7th 2024.
Mr.Frank Wilson Bodza, a Deputy Director in charge of conflict Management and Resolution at the National Peace Council, who took the journalists through Mis/Disinformation and Fake news urged the journalists to always do the fact-Checking, to verify the information before sharing to avoid conflicts especially this year’s elections which are already characterized by pockets of violence and other issues before the elections. He advised the Media to be responsible , professional and vigilant in playing their roles especially Upper East Region being a border region to prevent conflict and violent Extremism and to promote peace and development.
The Catholic Relief Services’ Prevention of violent Extremism Through Social Accountability’ Project Manager ,Madam Adelaide Yiriyelleh, remarked that, the main aim of the project is to improve civilians- security trust relations in Ghana towards the Prevention of Violent Extremism and cannot downplay the role of the media when its comes to promotion of peace in Ghana and to them,this training is timely to ensure that they have trained journalists from across different regions on conflict -sensitive reporting and appealed to them to share the knowledge.

Source – gbcuraonline.com