Kofi Akordor — Journalist of the Year

Saturday, August 29, 2009 (The Mirror Pg 11)

By Rebecca Kwei
At the 14th Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) awards ceremony, one man stood tall — Mr Stephen Kofi Akordor of the Graphic Communications Group Limited. He was adjudged the GJA Journalist of the Year 2008.
He was also named the GJA Columnist of the Year at the ceremony.
Mr Akordor joined the Editorial staff of the Daily Graphic in February, 1982 as Staff Reporter.
That same year, he was adjudged the Best Reporter on the News Desk by the company.
In 1983, he was posted to Ho as the Volta Regional Correspondent until 1992, when he returned to Accra to work on the Sub-Desk of the Daily Graphic.
Again in 1995, Mr Akordor was transferred to The Mirror, a weekly paper of the Graphic Communications Group and while there, wrote a column; The International Front, which won him The Best GJA Columnist Award in 2003.
During another change in 2003, he was re-posted to the Daily Graphic as Chief Sub-Editor.
In 2005, Mr Akordor won the GJA Best Feature Writer Award and it was in the same year that he started a new column; ‘From my Rooftop’ which touched on mostly social and national development issues in the Daily Graphic.
Yet another feather in his cap, Mr Akordor in 2006 won the GJA Columnist of the Year Award.
On how he feels about winning all these awards, Mr Akordor said, “I feel honoured and also appreciate the fact that my employers and readers acknowledge my contribution to the development of journalism in the country.”
Mr Akordor said he was inspired to write because he wants to “see my country move from this miserable state to a developed country. The media can be used as a development agent to sensitise and inspire people to bring about change.”
Mr Akordor has performed various assignments on the Political, Features and the Sub desks of the Daily Graphic.
However, he continued writing his column “From my Rooftop” ,which he never missed even when he is on leave.
“The only time this column was not featured was a week in June, 2005 when I was involved in a motor accident,” he recalled.
Mr Akordor advised media practitioners to focus on the national development agenda and not their parochial interest, adding that “at the end of the day a better Ghana means a better life for all of us.”
For emerging the best journalist of the year 2008, Mr Akordor will attend a four-week journalism programme at the Thomson Foundation in Cardiff University in the United Kingdom (UK), a four-week familiarisation tour of some media facilities in the UK and a visit to Unilever Headquarters in UK. He also received a certificate, a plaque and a laptop.
He attended Mawuli School for his secondary education; then continued at the Ghana Institute of Journalism and later at the School of Communication Studies of the University of Ghana, Legon.
He is married with six children.