National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has urged journalists to remain independent and resist allowing complaints from politicians to determine whether their reporting is fair.

He said journalists must subject claims and allegations to proper scrutiny and report the facts, regardless of whether the outcome was favourable or unfavourable to a political party or government.

Mr Asiedu Nketiah was speaking in Sunyani on Saturday, September 19, 2026, when he addressed the 4th Bono Regional Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Awards, held on the theme: “Ethics, Integrity and Impactful Journalism – Essential Ingredients for Societal Transformation.”

He said politicians would naturally have opinions about how the media reported on them, but such opinions should not become the yardstick for determining journalistic fairness.

“Journalists should listen to all of us, but the complaint of a politician cannot become the measure of whether a story is fair,” he said.

Mr Asiedu Nketiah said journalists should report completed projects as such, establish the facts when projects failed and avoid presenting unsubstantiated allegations as facts simply because they made attractive headlines.

“If a project has been completed, say so. If it has failed, establish the facts and say so. If somebody makes an allegation and the evidence is not there, do not convert the allegation into a fact simply because it will make an interesting headline,” he said.

He said the credibility of journalists was their most valuable professional asset and warned that once public trust was lost, it was difficult to regain.

Mr Asiedu Nketiah said the changing information environment made professional journalism even more important, particularly as social media, political parties, governments, companies and individuals could now publish directly to large audiences.

He noted that artificial intelligence had also made it possible to manufacture voices, images and other material that could be mistaken for authentic content.

“Somebody still has to establish what actually happened, and that responsibility makes professional journalism more important,” he said.

The NDC Chairman also called on journalists to maintain a permanent record of major public investments and follow up on them beyond the initial announcements.

He encouraged journalists in the Bono Region to track public projects by establishing what had been awarded, who was executing the work, the contractual completion date and whether the public ultimately received what it had paid for.

He said such journalism would help citizens assess the performance of governments and create an independent historical record of development projects.

“Governments and political parties will naturally tell their own stories. A professional media should leave behind a record that does not depend on the version preferred by either side,” he said.

Mr Asiedu Nketiah, who is also the National Chairman of the governing NDC, said the government should expect scrutiny from the media.

He said ministers should answer legitimate questions, public expenditure should be examined and government promises should be checked against actual delivery.

He also urged politicians to avoid treating difficult questions from journalists as hostility, saying uncomfortable questions could sometimes draw attention to issues that those close to political leaders might be reluctant to raise.

He further called for better working conditions for journalists and sustainable media institutions, saying journalists should be able to build respectable careers without becoming financially dependent on politicians, businesses and institutions they are expected to cover.

He congratulated journalists who received awards at the ceremony and urged them to protect the professional reputations they had built over the years.

“People eventually know which reporter checks the facts, which interviewer understands the subject and which journalist can be trusted when an issue becomes politically difficult,” he said.