File photo: Ghana journalists

The Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Coorperation (GBC), Professor Amin Alhassan has said poorly paid media practitioners pose a threat to national security.

This, he explained is due to the crucial roles played by the fourth estate of the realm nation building.

Prof Alhassan made these remarks while speaking at a European Union-Media Editor’s breakfast meeting in Accra whiles discussing Ghana’s position on the 2022 World Press Freedom Index.

The Director-General observed that, if journalists are poorly paid, they can be influenced by corrupt people.

Also, Media Law and Ethics lecturer at Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), Zakaria Musah Tanko charged employers to improve the remuneration of the media.

For his part, a Security Analyst, Adib Saani also called on regulatory authorities to urgently weed out persons he described as “rented journalists”.

Meanwhile, the ranking is Ghana’s third-lowest since Reporters Without Borders (RSF) began publication of the report in 2002.

In order to reflect press freedom’s complexity, five new indicators are now used to compile the Index: the political context, legal framework, economic context, socio-cultural context and security.

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