The Chair of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, Charlotte Osei, says the media have failed to live up to expectation in the run-up to the 2016 elections.

She justifies this by indicating that the media have gone dead on the over 20 reforms being implemented by the Commission to ensure successful elections and are rather concentrating on “scurrilous” news about the Commission and her person.

Mrs Osei made this known on Thursday, July 14 when she took part in a media and stakeholders’ workshop held at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Accra.

Themed ‘Towards Peaceful Elections: Reporting on Elections and Security in 2016’, the workshop drew security experts including state security agencies and media gurus to train selected journalists on how to report election issues accurately.

Participants were taken through topics on election security, possible triggers and shortfalls and consequences to peace and security.

Mrs Osei took a swipe at the media for their reportage on issues about the Electoral Commission.

“We have not seen a single report on how the results of the elections can actually be compromised or manipulated from an operational perspective which will now require that the media will call on the Commission to remedy those operational gaps they have identified.

“Yet everyday, we are inundated with scurrilous comments on how the EC and the chair of the EC as a person are rigging the elections.”

She lamented the seeming lack of trust for the Commission, wondering “what does it really take after 24 years to establish credibility?”

Head of Research at the Center Dr Emmanuel Kwesi Aning admonished the media to take a second look at reportage on security issues.

“So the way in which the speech act is presented even creates further insecurity.”

President of the Ghana Journalists’ Association Dr Roland Affail Monney urged journalists to be professional at all times.

Source: 3news.com|Ghana

Twitter: @3Newsgh