MOI Embarks On Restructuring Information Services Department (ISD)
The Information Minister has begun processes of reengineering and reinvigorating its Information Services Department sector to be abreast of modern information gathering and dissemination.
Addressing a cross-section of its district, regional information officers in Accra, the minister charged them to be abreast of current pluralistic media space and properly find a space in a scheme of the ongoing media battle.
“We live in a world where the media landscape is changing fast and broadening; so, do we maintain the 1939 modus operandi where Mobile Vans were our delivery mouthpiece or catch up with current media galloping speed? Today in Ghana we have over 100 TV stations, 400 radio stations, and thousands of bloggers as well as citizens media heckling to be heard and recognized so we necessarily need to up our game plan and methodology”, he emphasized.
The minister said the president has given them the go-ahead to transform and dynamize the sector to let information gathering and dissemination from the districts to the regions and capital be swift accurate and timely. As a result, the ministry has embarked on refurbishment, employing new staff, and retraining existing ones to meet the current demands.
“Even though we don’t have enough resources but do we relax and refuse to do anything because we don’t have all the resources? No, we have to use the little we have through our IGF to fix one or two things while expecting support from Government and other sources. The minister assured the gathering that ISD is being revamped to make its presence relevant because some people think it’s superfluous and moribund in modern-day media due to the emergence of vibrant social media.
The two days training for the Information Officers will inculcate in them the new direction and the need to be innovative and inventive in news delivery to beat their competitors to the game. The minister indicated that as a result of the introduction of the RTI concept, the ministry plans to employ over 1000 information officers across the country in all Government agencies, ministries, and departments. So far, about 100 of them have been engaged and are being trained. He stressed the need to employ journalists or train passionate ones to also work as journalists to tell their story better to the nation and the entire world.
Source:Nana Poku /Johnawuniktv@gmail.com
