Penplusbytes Undertakes Write-Shop on Oil and Gas Media Guide Production

In an effort to continually promote excellence in journalism, Penplusbytes over the weekend assembled a team of energy experts and journalists on oil and gas at the Capital View Hotel in Koforidua to undertake a writeshop on the way forward in developing a media guide for Ghanaian journalists to effectively undertake in-depth and investigative pieces on Ghana's oil and gas revenue and resources.


The guide will seek to educate and inform journalists about the chronology of events and the geopolitics surrounding Ghana’s oil and gas exploration, contracts and licensing, the money trail & the economics of oil and Gas. The media guide will throw more light on environmental issues and the legal and regulatory framework of the oil and gas sector and provide leads and pointers for journalists in their pursuit of ensuring transparency and accountability of key stakeholders in the sector.

Speaking on the importance of the write-shop, Mr. Jerry Sam, Penplusbytes Projects’ director noted that “this write-shop approach in developing the guide was adopted as it is useful in speeding up the production of the guide as materials and content for the guide can be revised and put into final form as quickly as possible, taking full advantage of the expertise of the various writeshop participants.”

Dr. Joe Asamoah, an expert on renewable energy and a participant noted that “this media guide when published will serve as reference material for journalists interested in covering pertinent issues on the Ghana’s oil and gas and report effectively on the sector. It will make information available to citizens to equip them to demand accountability from the government”

The write-shop forms part of Penplusbytes’ “Empowering the media to play an active role over oil and gas revenu...” project with funding from STAR-Ghana. The project seeks to improve coverage of oil and gas stories by the Ghanaian media leading to an increase in the quantity and quality (in terms of in-depth and investigative reporting) of oil and gas stories in Ghana and at the same facilitate knowledge exchange between the media and CSOs on key oil and gas revenue and resource issues.

Other activities lined up apart from the media guide include orientation with journalists on reporting oil and gas. Journalists will also benefit from a mentorship programme as well embark on educational field trips. The project will also make use of an interactive and collaborative online platform for information and knowledge exchange between CSOs and media for better advocacy in the sector.