Women in the Media
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EMMA MORRISON

Emma Morrison is a Christian who worships with the Methodist church. She is single and has a younger sister dependant. She works with TV3 as the head of news, a news producer, reads the news, does specialized reports on international news etc. There is a lot of competition in journalism both within and outside, i.e. with other media houses, so she has to work harder to much up.

She has been involved in a number of daring undertakings in her journalism career. She talked about a shooting incident at Gambia in September 2006 at the ECOWAS summit. They had to lie flat on their backs to protect themselves from any stray bullet but actually one person in a different hotel room got seriously injured by a stray bullet. An incident also occurred in Monrovia, when after they had interviewed Madame Ellen Johnson Sir leaf’s main opponent, George Weah, the crew was asked to give out the tape which they declined. There was a scuffle for hours until they (TV3’s crew), gave out a blank tape to pave the way. That is how risky the job can be sometimes.

She was part of the journalism team that covered the Inauguration of electricity in Monrovia. She was also at Monrovia for the GAMBAT 3, which was the first time Ghanaian women soldiers were involved. “It was very interesting talking to the women sharing their experiences”.

She did a story on HIV orphans at Kordiase in the Dangme West District with Father Campbell who had asked her help to bring to the lime light the plight of these children so they could be helped. These orphans are not HIV patients per se but have their parents dying of HIV/AIDS, which have left them orphaned and vulnerable. The response to this story was massive; churches, organisations and individuals responded and they got some help. However, She has to make follow ups and entreats the government to help children orphaned by HIV. In fact, She is pinched to the core to help when she sees their plight.

She covered the 61st session of the UN General Assembly, which was Kofi Anan’s last General Assembly in 2006 last year. She got to see at first-hand how the UN system works and got to see so many people who are normally only seen on International News Networks and she felt at her wits end.

She believes she has achieved her aim of becoming a journalist but still feels there is a lot more she can do. She just finished a professional workshop on conflict analysis reporting and the role of the journalist in conflict areas.

She wants Ghanaians to be educated on the many opportunities all around us so that they can tap into them and make good use of them to improve our economy.

She hopes to be an international communications consultant specializing in African affairs to highlight Africa’s role in the development of the world through communications.