Affail Monney and Joyce Bawa Mogtari
Joyce Bawa Mogtari, a top aide and spokesperson for former President John Mahama, has downgraded the intelligence of senior journalists who obliged the invitation of Jubilee House last Friday for the media encounter with the President.
Ridiculing the programme, she said it was a choreographed activity.
Her rating has incurred the wrath of a cross section of journalists, some of whom have anonymously described her reaction as preposterous.
Her reaction was contained in a TV3’s news analysis programme, The Key, during which she described last Friday’s session as stage-managed, with the objective of making government look good.
Her reaction was opposed to the true reflection of what transpired during the session when the President fielded questions ranging from the collapsed banks to the issue of the so-called ‘family and friends’ nepotism allegation levelled against him by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Most of the journalists, including the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Affail Monney, according to her, failed to ask probing questions to make it seem as though the government is doing well.
During the programme, she asked why there were no questions on how government is tackling issues of unemployment and other crucial issues.
Journalists, she went on, should have been given the opportunity to ask follow-up questions.
“That is why I think that the whole conversation yesterday (last Friday) was choreographed; it was stage-managed…and if I were a journalist, I would be asking why do we have to wait for the full complement of the ambulance, and I would have asked a follow-up question.”
Ms. Mogtari further alleged that she came across comments on social media suggesting that some key individuals noted for asking probing questions were sidelined.
For her, the opportunity was a rare one and journalists who made it on the invited list should have done better than they did.
For her, the President does not accept criticism, adding that things are not rosy in the country.
A side attraction of the programme was when the President after addressing the question of veteran Kwesi Pratt told him that he was a friend but because he is now on the other side and has an agenda against his government he no longer visits him.