The Editor of the Accra Daily Mail, Alhaji Haruna Atta, has slammed journalists and says the Media has turned itself into a cult and an arrogant institution.
The trait according to him, has made the media lose focus of its mandate as the eye of the society.
Alhaji Haruna Atta claimed that the media is side stepping its boundaries, stating that the Media�s main responsibility is to disseminate information for public consumption and not to use its power to destroy people.
Mr Haruna Atta was speaking at a roundtable discussion organized by Citi FM on lessons Ghana can learn from Rupert Murdoch�s News of the World phone Hacking scandal, and matters of ethics which have since arisen.
The forum essentially tapered down to a debate over whether the media must wield power to the extent of abusing the privilege of subterfuge or just have influence in society.
Alhaji Haruna Attah noted that the Media has become a ruse rather than performing its core function of being the news purveyor.
�The media has become such an arrogant and all powerful institution in the world that it has lost its original values. Now it is ego tripping, it is being the ruse rather than the news purveyor. It is not our business to show people or to use the media to finish people�.
Journalist and communications consultant, Paul Adom Otchere who declared his bias for the Chief Executive of News World, Rupert Murdoch, said although the Media must be allowed to operate in a free and fair environment, the media must be checked when it begins to wield more influence and power in society.
�The Media does not control the de jure authority of the country. It is for this reason that Rupert Murdoch was hauled before the Parliamentary committee so that the law is always a check. But if you make the people who are the operators of the de jury mechanism the powerful people, then society is doomed�where the media has influence and power it can be checked but where the politicians has influence and power it cannot be checked until the next election�.
Law lecturer, Ace Ankomah also noted that the influence of the Media has become so great that it needs to be checked so it operates within the confines of its boundaries.
Participants who attented the forum called on Journalists to ensure that the Media does not become a channel used in destroying and tarnishing the image of people in higher authority.
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