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Information Minister, Mustapha Hamid has implored government officials to be mindful of the information they put out, saying the media will scrutinise it without fear or favour.

He said the media has grown confident that they will no longer take what politicians say at face value.

At a Media and Information Literacy symposium organized by the University of Ghana’s School of Information and Communication, he said the era of government “re-diffusion sets” is over.

Government rediffusion set

“Now Joy FM even has what it calls Fact Checking where they take your speech one after the other and say this is true, partially true and wholly true,” he said.

He made reference to Nigerian novelist, Wole Soyinka’s play Kongi’s Harvest written in 1965 in which people who are averse to feedback were cautioned.

“Who but a lunatic will bandy words with boxes with government rediffusion sets, which talk and never take a lone word in reply,” the play said.

With Joy FM’s Fact Check that airs every Wednesday, the Information Minister believes no one can speak without facts.

“We are in an era where even a President or a Vice President cannot get away with the things that they say,” Mr Hamid said.

He was forthright that any information government officials put out, will be “fact checked.”

Mr Hamid said the heighten watchdog role of the media has made information literacy very important.