Chief Superintendent of Police Slim Opoku Manford, Tarkwa District Police Commander, has appealed to media houses to be careful when employing stringers.
He said some of those employed as stringers did not exhibit professionalism and rush to file stories without cross-checking them.
Mr Manford told journalists at Tarkwa on Tuesday that "the media in Ghana have become more or less a dumping ground for school leavers and dropouts".
He said because some of the media houses cannot afford to pay journalists with good qualifications they go in for those without the requisite qualification to serve as reporters and pay them a little money or nothing.
"Because of this, these charlatans depend mostly on extorting money and intimidate some vulnerable people by threatening to publish stories based on half truths and lies about them."
Mr Manford suggested that journalists who would be caught spreading vicious lies and making fabricated stories should be punished and should not be allowed to practise as journalists.
He appealed to the National Media Commission and Ghana Journalists Association to enforce standards or set additional ones that would spell out how one could become a member of the profession.
Mr Manford suggested that media houses should thoroughly scrutinize applicants before they are employed and that there should be a standard for establishing and running media institutions.
He said once higher standards are set there would be more responsible journalism devoid of bad tenses, misspelled words, misplaced headlines and other things that discredit the profession.