According to him, journalists are risking their lives to get news on the Coronavirus pandemic to furnish the citizenry with the needed information just as health workers are risking theirs to take care of patients.
“Elsewhere, media people who are sent out for correct information have contracted the virus and some are already dead and gone so while we celebrate our medical people or the frontline medical people for the excellent work they are doing, there are others, especially the media who are at risk because if you are talking about saliva and all that and they are sending microphones and things to people, going to communities and listening to them, they are already exposed to the threat,” the Presbyterian Minister said in an interview with ABC News.
The Media Foundation West Africa, Ghana Journalist Association and other groups having been calling for government to include media practitioners in the stimulus package announced for health workers as they also endanger their lives in the process of getting news on the pandemic.
This was after President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo announced a 50% allowance for ‘frontline health workers’ for the next three months.
Adding his voice to the discussion, Dr. Opuni Frimpong noted that even though it is necessary to add the media to the frontline workers category, owners of media houses must also discuss the allowances for their workers, especially those who are sent on assignments.
“But who should answer the question as to what should be given to the media, we must continue that conversation, maybe the various media houses must do it if it’s not coming from the government or government must have a package for the media, no matter how small. Our media being at the frontline of the fight should not be ignored that they not making a significant impact in the fight.”
He added that “in fact, some media persons in the US have died out of coronavirus already and we don’t know if even some of our media persons already have it or not because they have not been tested and the kind of work they do, they are also equally at risk.”
Dr. Opuni Frimpong further commended the media for the work they are doing in the face of the Coronavirus outbreak in the country.
“Some of the media platforms, they update you, not only even in Ghana… you hear some of your team members updating us with things happening outside Ghana with correct, genuine, well-researched information and that media role they have played, whether they are part of the front liners and they should be given allowances, is another question but on the whole, Ghanaian media has done very well in terms of giving Ghanaian media the correct information,” he added.
Rev Dr. Kwabena Opuni Frimpong