I�m Ready To Die For Ghana � Palmer-Buckle

The metropolitan Archbishop of Accra, Most Reverend Gabriel Charles Palmer-Buckle says he will do all it takes to maintain the peace and tranquility that exit on Ghana. �I love Ghana so I am ready to die for Ghana,� he said during the election 2012 series of the �Ghana Speaks� lecture in Accra Tuesday under the theme �The Ghanaian media, national peace and cohesion.� The �Ghana Speaks� lecture series was instituted by the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) to search for solutions to unresolved national challenges. It is designed to provide a platform for informed deliberation on development challenges. Though Reverend Palmer-Buckle admits the Ghanaian media is not doing badly, he noted �we can do better because I believe in the media myself.� Under the current circumstances, Ravened Palmer-Buckle said the country was polarized. Unfortunately, he said the media was dancing to the polarization tune instead of helping to shape society. In spite of this, he believes that polarization also represents �the cross fertilization of ideas.� �It is nice to have differences of opinion; it brings about the wealth of culture but that is where it should get to as the true essence of democracy,� he said. Rev. Palmer-Buckle who was the Chairman for the event consequently asked the media to be �a bit more circumspect with what they put out in the public domain�let�s listen to both sides, let us work on it and let us come out with that which brings about national peace and cohesion.� This according to him was because, �it is not everything that should be put in the public domain without considering what the consequences might be to the nation as a whole and the value of national cohesion and peace as well as the image of the personalities involved.� �I believe everybody has a conscience and should be answerable before God; that means a certain personal responsibility for what you put out in the open because I believe that every journalist must be answerable to what he or she puts out into the public domain,� he emphasized. On his part, Professor Kwame Karikari who was the main speaker said the media�s capacity to be effective in promoting the principles of national cohesion would be questionable if it lacked adequate professional and technical knowledge and skills. He therefore called for a communications policy to guide the country�s development agenda whilst stressing the need for the publication of newspapers in local Ghanaian languages. �The denigration of the development of our languages is the worst indictment on our governments towards cultural development,� he added.