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Ghana’s Media Development, What Could
Be Done
Samuel Dowuona,
Accra, December 24, 2006
Lately the media in Ghana has come under heavy official and
general criticism for perceived falling standards,
characterized by reporting of falsehood, blackmail and what
accusers call “media terrorism”.
Indeed, a survey carried out by the University of Ghana,
School of Mass Communication Studies (UGSCS) in 2005 among a
cross section of media practitioners across the country
revealed a striking opinion of journalists about standards
in their own professional practice.
About 90% of respondents in that
survey, who were journalists, were quoted as saying that
journalists were guilty of false reportage, cook stories,
are arrogance, blackmail, failure to verify information,
misinformation and disinformation, terrorism, reporting of
half truths, destructive reporting, refusal to publish
rejoinders, refusal to accept fault, ignorance, pretence to
know everything, praise singing, envelope journalism (soli),
lack of investigative reporting, lack of follow up and
several other violations of the ethics of the profession.
As a journalist myself, I felt sad that some colleagues
could acknowledge and admit to that unending list of
violations!
But with that striking admission from journalists
themselves, it doesn’t come as a surprise to me that,
politicians, corporate leaders and the public in effect,
have in recent times been agitating strongly for the
National Media Commission (NMC) to “be given the teeth” to
bite - indeed teeth, to bite media practitioners who fall
foul of ethics, rules and regulations guarding the practice
of the profession.
By implication, “a teeth to bite”, suggests an NMC, which is
legalistic and could therefore independently prosecute and
punish recalcitrant media practitioners and media houses.
Contrary to public agitation, The Executive Secretary of the
NMC, Samuel Sarpong, at a seminar on Media and National
Development in Accra recently, maintained that the NMC could
go as far as having a stricter monitoring procedure for the
media and not necessarily the powers of a court, which gives
it the teeth to bite.
Panelists and participants at the same seminar even sought a
clear definition of “stricter monitoring procedure”. They
were of the view that politicians only pressurize the NMC to
gag the media to stay off their (politicians) backs.
Indeed, one of the panelists, Dr. Bonnah Koomson from the
UGSCS, pointed that since the inception of the 1992
Constitution, the media in Ghana has contributed immensely
to the promotion of democracy, public accountability,
exposure of abuse of public office and monitoring of
elections.
Everything the media has done so far is worthy of praise by
all, including politicians, except that politicians have a
problem with the expose of official corruption and other
official abuse reported in the media. That has been the main
bone of contention between them and the media.
But debatable, as the agitation for a legalistic NMC may be,
journalists themselves do admit to falling standards in the
profession, which calls for some form of intervention. This
is to ensure that high standards are restored. The dilemma
however, is what kind of intervention is necessary to ensure
that while pushing the media to maintain high standards, we
do not gag them or make them mere praise singers of the
ruling party.
Journalists who attended the seminar for instance observed
the proliferation of half-baked journalists being churned
out by certain unaccredited training institutions in the
field of practice blaming the phenomenon as largely
responsible for the falling standards.
Publishers have been blamed for engaging such charlatans as
editors. The point is that they (the publishers) tend to
want to have such persons so that they can easily influence
them to their whims and caprices.
Moreover, as participants would observe, some publishers do
not have the required funding to pay for qualified editors;
thus ending with praise singers, half-baked journalists, if
we should even call them journalists, to work for them.
Over ambitiousness on the part of some young journalists to
come to the limelight overnight was also cited as one of the
reasons for poor reportage, usually damaging to individuals,
corporate organizations and sometimes to the security and
economy of the country.
In some cases people have lost their lives because of the
indiscretion of some rookie over ambitious reporter.
In the Western Region recently, a Customs Officer was
recently murdered because he told a journalist something off
the cuff, which was supposed not to have been captured in a
news article, but the journalists reported it in the news
and drew attention of some criminals to the Customs Officer.
The Customs Officer was reported to have told journalists
that he (the former) was part of a select group of officers
who have been secretly trained to be able to easily detect
narcotic drugs concealed in shipments. Note that Ghana has
been the identified recently as a drug route.
These rookie journalists forgot that the operational words
were “off the cuff” and “secretly selected” – which means
that even some colleagues of the late Customs Officer did
not know about that secret training. They threw caution to
the wind and reported everything the officer told him.
One would think that “what business did the Customs Officer
have telling the journalists about something which is
supposed to be a secret. But let us not forget that,
journalists are supposed to be trustworthy and discreet as
per the ethics of the profession.
Personally, I have had people and get people confiding in me
with some sensitive and damaging information sometimes, but
I try to draw a line between a discussion between two
friends and an interview for publication. It is important
that as journalists we build relationship based on
confidence and trust.
The question that faced panelists and participants at the
seminar, most of whom were journalists, was what kind of
intervention was necessary to restore, protect and maintain
high standards in the profession.
Obviously a legalistic NMC with a teeth to bite, was not an
option. Even the stricter monitoring as suggested by the
Executive Secretary of the NMC was not welcomed by
participants.
The Chief Justice (CJ) of Ghana, Justice George Kingsley
Acquah, revered and often disliked for his forthrightness
and cutting edge statements on issues of national concern,
suggested a novelty solution to the problem of falling
standards in journalism.
He was of the view that the National Development Planning
Commission (NDPC), funded with
taxpayer’s money to device plans for the development of the
various sectors of the country, should also be mandated to
come out with a Media Development Plan (MDP) in
collaboration with the good old NMC.
There is no gainsaying that the media is the fourth estate
of the realm and yet all the other three estates of the
realm, the judiciary, the executive and the legislature
enjoy immensely state funds, except the media.
The CJ called for a Media Fund (MF) to be manned by the NMC
and sponsored by the government, media houses, international
development partners, corporate Ghana and private
individuals with the passion for media development, to
support ailing media houses to employ proper staff and
obtain resources to help them generate more credible
articles.
About two years ago the country’s then 200 parliamentarians
were given car loans of US$20,000 each. When it came to
repayment, the MPs in one of the few times they have united,
somewhat agitated against the refund saying that they even
deserved more that US$20,000 for the work they do for the
country.
Recently there has been major state funding for
computerization of the court (judiciary) systems, besides
other cash intensive reforms which has taken place in the
judiciary, all funded with the taxpayers money or with state
guaranteed loans and grants.
“As for the executive they preside over the funds so they
use as much as they deem fit,” one publisher remarked.
Over the years, very little public funding has been brought
to bear on even the state-owned subvented media
organizations. New Times Corporation and Ghana News Agency
are hemorrhaging seriously. Even the fate of the almighty
Ghana Broadcasting Corporations (GBC), the state’s sole
broadcaster is in a limbo as they have had to resort to bank
borrowing to survive.
The Ministry of Information, the government’s media wing, is
the least resourced among all the ministries in the country
and other related institutions like the Ghana Institute of
Journalism and the NMC, which politicians are seeking to
demonize against the media, are poorly resourced and
seriously ailing.
In support of the CJ’s suggested, Mr. Enoch Akoto-Ampaw, a
private legal practitioner also known for his media advocacy
role strongly damned the “teeth to bite” theory, describing
it as a ploy by politicians to put pressure on the NMC to
gag the media and make them ineffective.
Mr. Kwesi Afriyie Badu, Chief Executive of KAB Consult and a
well known friend of the Ghanaian media, supported the idea
for a Media Development Fund (MDF), to better resource the
NMC, Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Private Newspapers
Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) and accredited
media training institutions.
Funding over the years has been a problem for the NMC. It
received a paltry 1.2 billion in 2005 and an additional
US$200,000 from the consolidated fund. This amount is no
where near what sister organizations like the National
Communication Authority (NCA) received from the consolidated
fund in that same year.
This clearly indicates government’s lackadaisical attitude
towards media development in the country.
The NMC must constitute a taskforce in the like of the IRS
and AMA revenue collection taskforces to work with the
Newspaper Vendors Association (NVA) and the police to arrest
the publishers and distributors of these newspapers. Those
who are willing and ready to register should be made to do
so. Those who are not prepared should be closed down
immediately.
It is my opinion that with the MF-MDF in place to support
the development of the media landscape and the regular
monitoring of media houses right from their inception, to
ensure that qualified people are employed as editors and
reporters, we will be on our way to restoring high standards
in media practice in this country.
Samuel Dowuona,
Accra, December 24, 2006
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