RE: Vote against Akufo-Addo - Bantama NPP Chairman campaigns

The said story with a headline“Vote Against Akufo-Addo-- Bantama NPP Chairman Campaigns" purported that I, Fiifi Mensah, Chairman of Bantama Constituency of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has mounted a spirited opposition to President Akufo-Addo and my party’s manifesto commitment of getting Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) elected.

I will like to categorically state that this report is absolutely misleading and malicious

Though I was on the said programme Via Mobile Phone Interview but at no point did I tell the Interviewer (Host) that I am or will campaign against neither the president nor our Manifesto commitment of amending Article 55(3) which will pave way for MMDCE’s to be elected.

There was no point during the interview did I mention that "I am campaigning or will campaign against the President decision".

When the host asked my personal observations of the elections of the MMDCEs in Kumasi, I told the host that I have just returned from a trip abroad and that I have not been briefed by my executives yet but I hear people asking questions about the amendment, and the question they are asking if the amendment is going to help the president, will the exercise help the government, wouldn’t it allow people to undermine and sabotage, the free SHS, the Nation Builders Corps program (NABC), one District one Constituency project (1D1F), one constituency – one warehouse project, one Village one Dam project (1V1D), among others that this president have worked so hard to achieved.

Those were concerns raised and are even raising it now whenever we set out to educate people here in Kumasi.

So I was referring to the concerns of the people not me as a chairman of the party and the position of the constituency.

I had already told the host that I had not been briefed by my executives yet so how can i campaign against party decision which I am part of it.

Such unbecoming reporting may result from the imperfect nature of journalism practice which makes précis of news events based on subjective choices. It could come from the sloppiness of practitioners or their deliberate action.

The overall effect of these reports is that apart from suffer damage to the reputation the headline, the lead and the supporting lead suggest the intern of pitching me against my president or trying to create tension in my constituency.

All these, of course, raise the question of accountability of the media as it is given that freedom has corresponding responsibility. Even though freedom of speech and of the media is an integral and one daresay cherished part of democracies, the media is not at liberty to damage the reputation and image of individuals.

Deliberate action in the sense of becoming willing tools in the hands of persons or groups who have scores to settle.

I, therefore, hope that you will correct this mis-reportage and also ensure that the other websites that picked up the story from you will also do the same.

I look forward to us working together to better our journalism,/media/blogging profession so the younger ones can also get it right.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Office of Mr. Fiifi Mensah

NPP Chairman, Bantama Constituency

Bantama, Kumasi-Ash.