Israel Laryea: Claiming new territories

For the past sixteen years, listeners and viewers in the country and beyond have become accustomed to the baritone voice with which ace broadcaster Israel Laryea, delivers his news bulletins both on radio and TV.

Currently, News Editor and main anchor at JoyNews TV, Israel produces and anchors the channel’s primetime news bulletin, JoyNews Prime which reaches audiences across Africa and Europe. He has become synonymous with news broadcasting and his experience serves as guide to countless upcoming journalists.

Israel is however taking on new frontiers and expanding his boundaries by reaching out to a wider audience, perhaps a test of his versatility.

He has signed onto a new programme, Discovery +233, as the co-host with the affable Anita Erskine.

The show, which premiered last Monday on Viasat1, is part of a unique public-private partnership between Discovery Communications and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to improve education opportunities for marginalized girls and boys in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, except pure entertainment is used to deliver the message in a subtle manner so that, it’s not your typical educative programme.

Discovery +233 comprises a number of attractive elements such as one-on-one interviews with some of Ghana’s biggest names in the media, creative arts and entrepreneurship landscapes.

The Discovery Project also seeks to empower teachers and families of marginalized children to raise the quality of education and prioritize access for all children and advances education by improving student (and in particular girls) outcomes in literacy and numeracy.

Also, the show will enhance community training and engagement activities designed to address gender marginalization, including the formation of clubs to connect out-of-school girls with educational opportunities where they are and support access to education.

It is for these many life changing reasons and the high quality of television programme production on offer that moved Israel to accept the offer to be co-host of this unique and transformative show.

“With the profile I have built over the years, any project I attach myself to must either reinforce or enhance what has already been built. Programmes have come along the way, but none of them have excited me like Discovery +233. This is an international project with high standards and that’s one of the things that appealed to me about it,” he told the B&FT Weekend.

The initiative furthers Discovery Communication’s commitment to advancing global education through its implementing partner, the Discovery Learning Alliance. DLA is a non-profit organisation established by Discovery Communications to use the power of media to transform education in some developing countries in Africa of which Ghana is one.

With several celebrities including Samini, Becca, KwabenaKwabena, Chris Attoh, Juliet Ibrahim, Claudia Lumor of Glitz Africa, TonyiSenayah of Horseman Shoes and Eugenia Techie–Menson of Spelling Bee telling their stories of how they became who they are, the show is targeting the youth, with special emphasis on the importance of education.

With music provided by the globally acclaimed Kwame Yeboah and his OBY Band throughout the show, Israel and Anita show and discuss some mini documentaries, which focus on people who have compelling stories of overcoming odds.

Signed onto the show for the first two seasons, Israel sees this as an expansion of his scope and a venture into something uniquely different from what he has been doing for the past 16 years.

He sees Discovery +233 as the show that will allow him to approach a whole segment of the market or television audience that would typically not tune in to the news.

“Due to my work as a news broadcaster, I have cultivated a following but Discovery +233 takes me to another level where I am able to reach the people who would not watch the news but would love entertainment, inspirational stories and other television content that are not necessarily news. I am getting the benefits of two worlds,” he said.

“You are going to have parents sit down to watch with their children. There's something in it for everybody. You may have a superstar talk about their education and the challenges they had to go through to convince their parents that they want to do music or take up other non-traditional careers. These challenges still exist.”

As a stringer for global news network CNN in Ghana, Israel is concerned about the declining standards in the media. He however says the problem is not restricted to just the media explaining that the entire education system needs an overhaul.

“Standards have dropped among media professionals considerably. I relate it to education, in which case the standards dropping are not just related to the media but cuts across every sphere including medicine, law, and politics.”

He, therefore, sees a show like Discovery +233 as one way to get people to aspire to do greater things and set more ambitious goals which by extension will mean that they will seek quality education which includes they educating themselves as well, if their schools are not providing that need.

This is a cause he says the business community must support as it will in the long run inure to their benefit.

“Ghana’s oil firms, telcos, banks et al, this is a project if you do support with your corporate sponsorships, your shareholders will feel proud. But whilst at it, you also get the opportunity to advertise and be associated with a very noble cause”.

In addition to stringing for CNN and assisting with the network’s programmes produced in Ghana such as, CNN Inside Africa, CNN African Voices and CNN Market Place Africa, Israel also does regular business news analysis for the BBC World Service World Business Report.

As a huge feather in his cap, Israel had the opportunity and made history by moderating Ghana’s Election 2008 Presidential Debates at a very crucial time in the country’s democratic journey, which he followed, later in the same year, with the Vice Presidential Debates.

Many also remember Israel winning the 2008 CNN/Multichoice African Journalist Awards as Africa’s best radio journalist the last time the ceremony was held in Ghana and broadcast nationwide

As News Editor and Anchor, at the nation’s most influential media group, Israel continues to mentor the scores of journalists at JoyNews on both TV and radio and the many others outside the Multimedia Group who look up to him.

He also provides invaluable media and communications relations advise to Ghana’s business leaders. Despite all these successes chalked individually and as part of the team at Multimedia, Israel believes there is always more room for improvement. He sees the current production at Multi TV as progressing well but believes the bigger picture will be seen by viewers once the country migrates onto the digital TV platform.

“The news bulletin, JoyNews Prime which currently airs at 8pm, is good despite the many challenges involved with its production. I strongly believe it is the best news bulletin in the country at the moment, except because we’re sitting on the Multi TV digibox, a lot more viewers do not get to appreciate it because they don’t get to watch. But once all the TV channels are migrated onto the digital platform everyone will get to appreciate what’s on offer.”

“And I’m able to say this with confidence because in Europe where the news bulletin reaches audiences on ABN TV’s free-to-air channel, our ratings, very easily verifiable are crazy.”

Israel started off at TV3 as a Production Assistant in March 1999 and quickly progressed to anchor the station’s primetime news broadcasts for close to a decade after just six months, that was in September, 1999.

He then moved to Joy FM as a broadcast journalist, initially anchoring news bulletins on the Super Morning Show which was at the time hosted by the late Komla Dumor.

He became Business News Editor for a few years and then News Editor until he was moved to TV with responsibilities across the Multimedia Group.

Israel, who has a Bachelor of Marketing Degree from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), is married to Louisa Laryea of Beige Capital and the homely couple have three children, two boys and one girl.

Source: Thebftonlin.com

By: Bernard Yaw Ashiadey ( B&FT Online )

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