IT IS UNETHICAL FOR CIVIL SERVANTS TO ENGAGE IN PARTISAN POLITICS (PAGE 17)

A Deputy Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr Richard Quayson, has stated that it is unethical and improper for public and civil servants to openly engage in partisan politics.
“We will be setting a bad precedence if we continue to allow civil servants to openly support one political party or another because when some of them fail to succeed, they go back to their jobs, instead of resigning,” he pointed out.
Mr Quayson was reacting to a question posed by a media practitioner in Tamale regarding the current trend in the country’s body politic whereby some civil servants openly supported some political parties, with the intention of taking up political appointments.
That was during a day’s seminar organised by CHRAJ to help increase awareness and sensitise media practitioners to human rights issues.
Participants discussed issues such as media reportage of human rights, the functions and activities of CHRAJ, ethical issues and reporting on human rights abuses.
Mr Quayson entreated the media to support the commission in its activities to help improve on the country’s human rights record.
“So far, my outfit has succeeded in empowering the people and improving accountability and transparency in offices,” he noted.
He observed that sensationalism and misinformation in the media would be reduced significantly if media practitioners were adequately sensitised to pertinent human rights issues.
According to him, CHRAJ was mandated to investigate complaints of human rights violations, matters of public interest and abuse of office by public officers.
Mr Quayson, however, noted that the major challenge facing his outfit was how best to instil the culture of respect for human rights among Ghanaians.
The Public Relations Officer of CHRAJ, Mrs Comfort Akosua Edu, urged media practitioners to develop “a passion for human rights reporting”.
She equally urged them to engage in “proactive journalism and not reactive journalism”.
Mrs Edu explained that proactive journalism enabled journalists and media houses to prevent politicians and businesses from dictating “what is on the news and using the media to push their own agenda”, while reactive journalism referred to reporting on scheduled assignments and breaking news events like major crimes and fire outbreaks.