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Activist under fire as GIJ SRC seek apology over ‘sexist’ comments
The GIJ SRC is demanding an apology and retraction from Casely-Hayford over what they term as "sexist" comments.
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The political analyst appears to have riffled a few furthers after suggesting female students of GIJ care more concerned about fashion than attaining proper journalistic training.
Commenting on the falling standards of journalism in the country, Casely-Hayford took aim at the kind of journalists being produced by GIJ in recent years.
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According to him, females from the Institute must “tone down on the fashion and get a little more serious”, while advising them to do away with “fashion parades”.
“Go to the Ghana Institute of Journalism, GIJ, and look at the students who are coming out, majority of them are females and when you look at it, you will see that it is more of a fashion parade…so when we are talking about quality of journalism, they should tone down on the fashion and get a little bit more serious with the actual content,” he said on Citi FM’s Big Issue on Saturday.
His remarks were in relation to the poor questions posed by some journalists to President Akufo-Addo during his recent encounter with the media.
However, his comments have not gone down well with the GIJ SRC, who have condemned it as “very sexist, unfortunate and unwarranted”.
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A statement signed by the SRC’s General Secretary, Nathaniel Alpha, said such a comment is “an insult to the values of the Ghana Institute of Journalism”.
They are, therefore, demanding an apology and a retraction from Casely-Hayford, insisting he must “do the honorable thing”.
Read the full statement by the GIJ SRC below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Casely Hayford must apologize and retract his statement against female students of the Ghana Institute of Journalism.
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The Students’ Representative Council of the Ghana Institute of Journalism has read a very unfortunate comment attributed to Mr. Casely Hayford of Occupy Ghana ( refer to image for details). The statement was said to have been made on Citi FM’s Saturday flagship program “The Big Issues” on 20th January 2018 and captured in several commentary on social media.
According to him, female students of the Ghana Institute of Journalism are more “interested in fashion parades than empowering themselves”.
The SRC finds his statement to be very sexist, unfortunate, unwarranted, unguided, without basis and an insult to the values of the Ghana Institute of Journalism.
Mr. Casely Hayford in his statement sought to suggest that GIJ female students are only interested in fashion and that should partially be blamed for the “falling” standards in Journalism in the country.
GIJ SRC rejects his assertion completely and would like to call on him to do the honourable thing of apologizing and retracting his statement.
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We would also like to use this opportunity to draw his attention to the following:
1. GIJ remains the topmost Journalism Institution in Ghana. Till date, GIJ has produced the finest of Journalists and Communication professionals who have served and continue to serve this country in various capacities. The media ecosystem is incomplete without the contribution of the Ghana Institute of Journalism and especially its female students and products. GIJ is still in the business of producing journalists who are very professional.
2. GIJ has a robust practical teaching and learning structure that is designed to ensure that students of the Institute come out ready for the inky fraternity. If Casely Hayford and other like-minded people who support such sexist comment care to know, much of the country’s finest female Journalists and Communication professionals have been trained at the Ghana Institute of Journalism. The list is a very tall and non-exhaustive one-the likes of;
and a host of others who are not “engaging in fashion parades” in the industry but are shaping the course of Communication and Journalism in the country.
The current female students of the Institute are embarking on similar paths these stalwarts took during their stay at GIJ as many of them are taking up internship opportunities and chasing excellence as far as the learning of the profession is concerned.
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It is even more interesting to note that the comment by Mr. Hayford was about the performance of Journalists at the recent Presidential Press Encounter; an issue the SRC has already addressed and made recommendations on.
The said recommendations have been published widely on various online portals.
It is very unfortunate that an opinion leader like Casely Hayford would not use his platform and such opportunities to discuss the quality of the state of Journalism independent of schools and of gender. The quality of Journalism, he and others should be minded, is a product of many things in this county and not necessarily the training Institute or the conduct of a specific gender. It borders on the vision of media houses, the ability of the media houses to employ professionals, enforcement of standards by regulators and stakeholders and several other contingencies. It is shocking that he, who is supposed to know better, would reduce the discussion to such sexist commentary.
Casely Hayford has to apologize for his misrepresentation of females in GIJ and GIJ at large.
Signed
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Nathaniel Alpha
General Secretary
GIJ-SRC
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