President Nana Akufo-Addo has called on the media to identify and eliminate the trend of fake news within the practice.

The president was speaking at the World Press Freedom Day Awards Dinner on Wednesday evening.

In his address, he said that the integrity of the media was at stake if the practitioners and other stakeholders fail to deal with this challenge.

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“This is a major threat to the integrity of the news world as we have known it. It is not something to be left only to regulators to deal with. It is something that the whole world of media practitioners must resolutely confront and assist the society to identify and eliminate.”

“If not, it has the tendency to undermine the very profession they practice. It may in the long term, lead to a significant weakening of the entire industry,” he added.

The president also commended Ghanaians for the defending their right to free expression in the name of an open society and accountable governance.

So far, he affirmed that Ghanaians “have manifested in the 4th Republic, their deep attachment to the principles of democratic accountability, respect for individual liberties and human rights, and the rule of law.”

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Speaking on the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law, he said he has become a victim despite being one of the principal actors who championed its repeal in 2001.

“I will say again that I much prefer the noisy, boisterous, sometimes scurrilous media of today, to the monotonous, praise-singing, sycophantic one of yesteryear.”

“The Ghanaian media has in fact enriched the nation’s governance by its curiosity, investigative skills, and persistence,” he concluded.