Ghanaian journalists may be failing to carry out their duty to hold political leaders accountable if they do not ask relevant, specific and pointed questions of the political leaders, a study has concluded.

The study which was based on a content analysis of questions asked by journalists during the recent press encounter with president John Mahama showed that about 42 per cent of the questions were broad and sweeping.

The Researchers, Dr Etse Sikanku & Kwaku Botwe, all of whom are lecturers at the Department of School of Communications University of Ghana Legon, in their conclusion said: "Questions should be well researched and well premised in order to making them specific, biting and top-notch. Hopefully this would help journalists fulfil their mandate of holding government accountable on the specifics of national issues."

There have been mixed reactions about the quality of questions posed by journalists to president John Mahama during the recently held presidential press encounter.

While some believe the questions asked by the journalists were generally fair and relevant, others believe they could have done much better.

In what appears to be the first ever assessment of journalists after a major event like the presidential press encounter, the researchers content analysed the questions as well as the body language of the journalists when they were asking the questions.

Of the 26 questions asked by journalists from the different media houses on the day, 18 of them, representing 69.2% were deemed to be relevant.

"Relevance of issues was defined or operationalized as topical and trending issues of national concern. These were issues of public interest, debate and controversy. In other words as far as this research was concerned we limited our operationalization of relevant questions to burning, major, prominent and dominant issues of pressing national concern," the research explained.

The questions centred largely on three areas- politics, national security, economy, even though a few had something to do with health and education.

There was no question at all on agriculture, sports, a development the researchers found a bit worrying given the challenges the country is facing in the two sectors.

In terms of body language the report also found the journalists were largely civil in terms of tone and posture.

The researchers are recommending that the press conference be held at regular intervals and the format changed a little to allow for a lot of follow-ups.