Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, Minority Chief Whip, has chided the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin for asking Parliament to sanction media houses that misreported his comments concerning the possible evacuation of Ghanaian students from Ukraine.
The Effutu MP while contributing to a debate on the floor of the House stated that, to ensure the government had the needed resources to manage the affairs of the State, the MPs especially those from the Minority side needed to support the passage of the E-Levy.
He said, evacuating Ghanaians from Ukraine will come at a cost that will affect the limited resources government has generated.
“The call to evacuate Ghanaian citizens from Ukraine will come at a cost. No European country will evacuate our citizens for us. America will not do that. There is going to be pressure on the limited resources that we have…Of course, Deputy Minority Leader, you have not spoken into the microphone, but if you are talking about E-Levy, this is the more important reason why we even need it,” Afenyo-Markin said.
Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, however, denied making any such allusion and has among other things asked that media houses that had allegedly misreported his comments to be sanctioned by the House.
Reacting to his application, the Asawase MP told his colleague that Parliament was not the appropriate place to file a complaint concerning such an incident.
Muntaka Mubarak said, even though he understood the anger of the Deputy Majority Leader, MPs had no power to determine the editorial policy of a media house.
He noted that calling for media houses to be sanctioned by the House was an abuse of his position and thus advised Afenyo-Markin to seek redress from the National Media Commission.
The Minority Chief Whip said, he was absent on the day the Effutu MP made his remarks but upon listening to the video more than 20 times the media never misreported him [Afenyo-Markin].
“I have listened to the video more than 20 times, you mentioned Ukraine evacuation will cost money and it is the reason we should leave all this politicking. Dollar is having a challenge that is why E-levy must be approved. You said it, the video is here, I have forwarded it to all of them so you can disagree with how they framed their headline, but it is not for us to tell a news portal how their headline should be,” Muntaka explained.
He added, “You may disagree with how they captured the headline, but it is not for us to determine how the headline should be and so please let’s allow Speakers ruling to stand, let’s meet in confidence, look at the thing together and if there’s a reason genuinely why you want what you want to be done, then as a House we can come together, but you cannot insist that what you want to be done your way. That cannot be right.”
Source: ghanaweb
