The writer and broadcaster Elizabeth Ohene is one of Ghana’s most distinguished journalists. She started her career as a reporter for the Daily Graphic, Ghana’s largest- circulation daily newspaper, winning promotion to staff writer, columnist and leader writer, and becoming acting editor of the Graphic and the Mirror in 1979. She was the first woman in Africa to edit a major daily publication.
A decision to publish an editorial critical of the military government led to her exile in 1982. In London, she founded Talking Drum Publications and joined the BBC’s Africa Service. She reported for the BBC from South Africa between 1993 and 1994 as that country transitioned to democracy and rose to become deputy editor of English daily programmes for the Africa Service.
In 2001 she was appointed as spokeswoman to President John Agyekum Kufuor, and later served as the minister in charge of tertiary education. Elizabeth Ohene is a member of the International Women’s Media Foundation and a role model to many women, especially those in journalism.