The National Media Commission (NMC) has criticized the media over the handling of the health issue of Prof. Evans Atta Mills.
The media was generally inundated with stories bothering on the health of Prof. Mills who is the flag bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Speaking on Joy FM’s current affairs programme, Front Page, the Executive Director of the NMC, Mr George Sarpong, said journalists ought to guide their publications with the ethics of the profession.
He said they ought to ensure that the issues reported on were true, and that there were sufficient facts to support the story.
According to him, the media had failed especially sensitivity which is one of the cardinal principles guiding their profession.
He said the only thing that could have compelled journalists to report on the issue was an overriding national interest, which he did not find in the saga.
Contrasting the position of the NMC, the publisher of the Chronicle newspaper, Mr Kofi Koomson said journalists had a responsibility to report on the health status of public officials, especially presidential candidates.
That, he said is because the public deserved to know the health status of their leaders.
He said he would publish the details of health concerns of any presidential candidates if he had them.
A lecturer at the School of Communication at the University of Ghana, Dr Audrey Gadzekpo, urged politicians to be candid with information about their health status.
She stressed there were serious implications for the country if a president in waiting had health conditions that would affect his performance.
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