PRINPAG calls on gov't to institute Covid-19 Media Alleviation Fund

 
President for the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), Mr Andrew Edwin Arthur has called on government to institute a Covid-19 Media Alleviation fund to assist media practitioners covering the pandemic.
The President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his address fifth Address to the nation after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic said he had directed the Minister for Finance to send to Parliament the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP), whose objective is to protect households and livelihoods, support micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, minimise job losses, and source additional funding for promotion of industries to shore up and expand industrial output for domestic consumption and exports.
He noted that through this Programme, the Ministries of Gender, Children and Social Protection and Local Government and Rural Development, and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), working with MMDCEs and the faith-based organisations, have begun to provide food for up to four hundred thousand (400,000) individuals and homes in the affected areas of the restrictions.
Addressing the media in a joint press conference by Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Association of Women in Media (ASWIM) Wednesday , PRINPAG President, Mr Andrew Edwin Arthur said the media plays a critical duty in line with the constitutional mandate as the fourth estate of the realm by providing adequate information on the pandemic exposing members of the media to the same risk our health workers are also exposed.
“All media practitioners who have been lending support to the national effort also as front liners in the fight against the spread of the virus and in this sense we expect to be elevated to that status for the purpose in the ensuing argument. Apart from our frontline role in educating the general populace on the dangers associated with COVID-19 and the need to observe critically all the safety measures and protocols most of us have come into direct contact with carriers and Coronavirus patients,” he said.
He called on the government and corporate institutions, to consider frontline media practitioners in the provision of PPE to enable the media arm themselves adequately to lend support to other stakeholders in the collective fight against the spread of the virus.
 
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Vivian Adu Boatemaa