The Legal Resources Center has admonished journalists in the Northern Region to double their efforts reportage on road crashes and road-related offenses.
The center has over the years challenged journalists across the country to increase responsibility and professionalism in reporting on road-related issues.
Journalists from across the northern regional capital, Tamale, were brought together and reminded about how important it is to contribute to awareness creation in preventing road crashes, using the right approaches in reporting, to avoid de-escalation and loss of lives that could be saved after a crash.
In his remarks, the Programme Officer for the Legal Resources Center, Enock Jengre highlighted the works of the center with journalists over the past years, indicating that even though the LRC works in many other areas with other stakeholders, the role of the journalist in the road safety chain is invaluable.
According to Mr. Jengre, there is the need for journalists to be provided the tools and ingredients they need to create awareness, contribute to public education and to report on road crashes when they happen.
The Northern Regional Director of the National Road Safety Authority, Mr. Abdulai Bawa Ghamsah encouraged journalists to always go to get their figures on road crashes from the right sources, such as the National Road Safety Authority.
He however added that the culture of reporting on road crashes is very low, thereby making it difficult for the authority to get the accurate figures.
He however indicated that journalists can help in creating public awareness for reporting road crashes, with or without casualties, to help in the fight against and in reducing loss of lives after a crash on the road.
Presenting efforts the Bloomberg Initiative for Road Safety has been putting in to help reduce road crashes, its Communication Officer, Ms. Mavis Obeng Mensah indicated that journalists can look beyond the road crash to help in the prevention campaign.
According to Ms. Mavis, starting narratives to help shape public perception on road safety has proven to be more effective than the traditional way of communicating road safety awareness.
She said if the public is told a story from numerous angles after a road crash, including putting survivors at the center of the story, it would help in achieving a positive influence on the public perception on road safety.
Ms. Mavis also took time to display some of the materials the BIGRS has produced in the recent past, for media awareness creation on road safety.
Some of the participating journalists however decried the lack of consistent resource such as information on road safety, and accurate figures of road crashes at given times, as some of the challenges they face in waging the campaign to support in ensuring road safety.