Newmont Ghana, one of the leading names in gold mining, over the weekend held a two-day workshop for media practitioners in Accra.
The workshop, which brought together about 30 journalists, focused on Minerals and Mining law in Ghana.
The workshop was on the theme: “Minerals and the Mining Law in Ghana, Land Access and Compensation and Effective, Fair and Balanced Reporting on mining and its related operations and activities.”
According to Dr. Chris Anderson, the Director, Corporate and External Affairs of Newmont, the workshop was aimed at keeping journalists abreast of current development and issues in the mining sector.
“Newmont strives to ensure honest and transparent communication with all our media stakeholders, by keeping you well informed on our activities and issues relating to the mining industry in general,” he said.
The first one was on Friday which hosted reporters from various media houses whilst the editors had their turn Saturday, 22nd August 2009. The event was interactive also served and as the right platform for discussing issues relating to the mining industry.
Participants were taken through the basic mining laws, the payment of compensation and royalties to indigenes affected by mining, as well as how to objectively and professionally report on mining.
One of the resource persons, Mr. Kwame Gyan, a Lecturer at the University of Ghana Law Faculty, underscored the need for journalists to know the laws that govern the mining industry in order to be professional and circumspect in their stories.
He bemoaned that the situation where journalists are not updated on mining laws gives room for misinformation to the larger Ghanaian public.
“In their haste to break the news, journalists fail to research to get the right information. It is prudent to do your checks well in order to be well informed,” indicated Mr. Kwame Gyan.
Mr. Roland Affail Monney, the Vice President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) for his part urged the participants to avoid writing one sided stories.
“All attempts to get authorities to react proved futile; this is not the best of things to do. Always try as much as you can to get the other sides of stories so that you can always have a balanced story,” he maintained.
By Ato Keelson & William Beeko