Paul Adom Otchere
Host of Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana program is convinced that it is possible for journalists to make “a lot of money” contrary to popular perceptions that the profession is economically unattractive.
According to Paul Adom Otchere “if you do journalism well, it pays”, he argued on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Tuesday.
In a discussion that focused on journalists and their relationships with politicians, Adom Otchere argued that a “professional journalist” can make money from advertising revenue.
“I have walked out and picked advertising revenue for myself” he revealed insisting that good ratings for a media practitioner should reflect an increase in his economic worth.
He explained that when a journalist works hard for 15 or two decades, the employee becomes an “important part of business” which the employer must recognize and reward.
Paul Adom Otchere said he sees nothing wrong for a journalist to receive a reward from a client or advertiser just as a lawyer could receive a gift from a client.
“If a lawyer receives a home there is no problem with that [but] if a journalist receives a car from a client [then there is a problem?], he argued.
The Metro TV show host also advocated a better appreciation of the relationship between politicians and journalists. He said a journalist is not an island who must shy away from politicians for fear of being compromised.
He said the two professions are constantly influencing each other. A politician depending on the strength of his relationship gets prime time chance to go on air when other politicians will be denied the opportunity.
He said journalists should feel free to negotiate things with a politician in a professional and ethical way. The journalist can use a politician’s request to respond to allegations as an opportunity for him to also ask questions on a subject which the politician would have turned him down on another day.
Relying on his personal experience, Paul Adom Otchere revealed that “as a journalist of longstanding I have benefitted from some kind of favours”.
“For instance the Black Stars are playing at the Accra Sports Stadium and the stadium is full. So I call the minister and say honorable I need a ticket… and he will offer me tickets I don’t pay for it”
“We are influencing each other….that is not inducement, that is privilege, benefitting from the relationship one way or the other”, he said.
Another TV show host Nana Aba Anamoah also believes professional relationships of influence always exist between politicians and journalists but insisted that taking money or things of value should be ruled out.
“The attempt [to influence me] is always there…I don’t think there has been an attempt to influence me with money. No one has attempted to influence me with money”.
Editor of myjoyonline.com Malik Daabu lamented what he said is the increased political party activists parading themselves as journalists, a phenomenon he said should be separated from professional journalists.
“There are so many political journalists and not so many professional journalists so what happens most of the time is people use the conduct of the political journalists to determine or judge all journalists” he said.
Joy News Political reporter Raymond Acquah explained that offers from politicians are more subtle than apparent. “Politicians have moved beyond coming to you with a bag of money”, he said.
He said a journalist may be offered an opportunity to be considered as a beneficiary of a housing project by government. Years later, the politician can ask for a favour as payback for the housing offer.
-Myjoyonline