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GNA @ 50 - LIVING UP TO OSAGYEFO'S
DREAMS
A GNA Feature by Boakye-Dankwa Boadi
Accra, Feb. 8, GNA - That landmass on the coast of the Gulf
of Guinea in the North Atlantic Ocean nearest the
geographical point where longitude zero degree crosses
latitude zero degree and thus becomes the Centre of the
Earth using the Mercator Projection is "free forever".
That landmass, a bigger portion of which was allocated to
Great Britain at the Berlin Conference held between November
15, 1884 and February 26, 1885 at which the white man
divided Africa as a loaf of bread on a breakfast table, is
"free forever".
That landmass, which Portuguese explorers entered through a
point called "Elmina" because they bought a lot of gold
produced from the hinterland in the early days of the
voyages of exploration by Europeans, "is free forever".
That landmass, which the British colonialists called the
Gold Coast, "is free forever".
"At long last the battle has ended and Ghana your beloved
country is free forever."
Indeed this historic statement of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah
is incontrovertible no matter how critics looked at it.
Political freedom is a sine-qua-non to all freedoms just as
freedom of speech is the mother of all human rights.
Sovereignty and only sovereignty gives a nation the power to
determine what it wants for itself - be it methods of
economic or social transformation.
Indeed Ghana is free forever notwithstanding what the
country decided to do with its own destiny. If the people
allowed internal bickering to divide their front and enabled
the colonialist to sneak back using Ghanaians as fronts in a
situation which Osagyefo Dr Nkrumah called "Neo-Colonialism"
to still control the economy of the country did not in any
way negate the fact that Ghana is free. This is because with
political power Ghanaians could legislate to take control of
the commanding heights of the economy at any point in time.
Osagyefo Dr Nkrumah knew that it was necessary to tell the
"Ghana Story" in the right perspective and the best means to
accomplish that task was for the country to have its own
Media.
Thus on the eve of Ghana's independence - March 5 1957 -
Ghana News Agency was born to announce the birth of Ghana
and to tell the "Ghana Story".
The expectations of Osagyefo Dr Nkrumah came out succinctly
in his speech when he inaugurated a new office accommodation
for the Agency at the Ghana House on March 6 1958.
He said: "Indeed, the Ghana News Agency is now just over one
year old, but it already has a very powerful voice and has
made itself heard through the length and breadth of Ghana.
"Government's assistance to the Ghana News Agency, which
will eventually leave the shelter of the Department of
Information Services and, like Reuters, stand on its own
foot as a body responsible to its subscribers and trustees,
is a testimony of our confidence in the ability of the press
to manage its own affairs.
"I foresee the day when, in the press of the world, any news
item warranted by the initials 'G.N.A.' will find an
unchallenged place in any newspaper of standing wherever it
may be."
So dear was the GNA to the heart of Osagyefo Dr Nkrumah that
he ensured that the Agency's own office complex was built.
He virtually revisited the task he had assigned the GNA
earlier and expressed his satisfaction with the good job the
Agency was doing in his speech during the inauguration of
the new office complex of the Agency on March 6 1965.
He said: "The growth of the Ghana News Agency since 1957;
symbolises in many ways the gigantic strides made by Ghana
in eight brief years of independence. From humble beginning,
and bearing the heavy burden of a colonial legacy, we are
developing with great speed into a strong, progressive State
with the great goal of socialism.
"The journalist is one of the major architects of the new
Ghana and of the new Africa. It is by his work that our
people can have some idea of what we are thinking and know
something of the events in Africa and the world.
"Through his eyes our people are made to know about the
machinations of imperialism and neo-colonialism. It is by
his pen that the will of the people can find expression and
our determination to be free, to unite Africa, and to build
a new society, is proclaimed for the world to know.
"The journalist writes about what is important; what is
significant; what is striking; what is timely and what will
interest a lot of people. Today, in Africa, what is foremost
and important is the movement for the political unification
of our Continent. What is striking and timely is the African
revolution expressed in the search for the realization of
this great goal and objective. It follows, therefore, that
our articles, our commentaries, our radio and television
newscasts must be prepared and portrayed by revolutionary
journalists, who see the world through the eyes of the
revolutionary African.
"I think we may say that journalism is, in a way, the art of
seeing - of seeing what makes news; what is significant and
interesting - and then conveying what has been seen to the
reader in the most effective manner.
"However, what is seen differs according to the viewer: Two
persons witnessing the same event may actually see different
things. For example, the press of the entire world was
present at Addis Ababa when the First Conference of all
African Heads of State and Government was held in 1963.
"But what did most of the correspondents of the world
commercial press write about that Conference? What did they
see in that Conference? They saw only the cold war between
East and West. In each of our resolutions, in each of our
decisions, they looked only for imaginary victories or
defeats of the socialist world or the capitalist world. It
did not occur to them that our Conference might be an
expression of the spirit of the new African.
"They did not see the conference as a historic step towards
the great goal of African Unity under a Continental Union
Government. They saw the Conference only through their own
eyes, in the light of their preoccupations and their
interests.
"A more recent example is provided by the events in the
Congo Leopoldville. At the time of the imperialist
aggression against Stanley Ville, the Western press shed
tears only for the few so-called European hostages held by
the revolutionary forces. This press showed little sympathy
for the thousands of Congolese maimed and killed by
neo-colonialist paratroopers and South African mercenaries.
"Other examples could be given. What a journalist sees
depend on what his past experience is; what his education
has been; what his intelligence is; what political sense he
has and what his general outlook on the world is - in other
words, on his political consciousness and ideological
background. The necessity for a clear ideology of the
African Revolution must be to view problems in the right
perspective so that they can write them with insight and
understanding.
"The drumbeat of the African Revolution must throb in the
pages of his newspapers and magazines; it must sound in the
voices and feelings of our newsreaders. To this end, we need
a new kind of journalist of the African Revolution. He
cannot help in the building of the new Africa, unless he
himself has founded his conviction on the rock of a
scientific understanding of the world around him.
"In the West, much is made of the theory of the so-called
"neutrality" of the journalist and "freedom" of his press.
According to this theory, the reporter is a dispassionate
observer, who reveals no opinions or prejudices. He does not
take sides, but allegedly simply sets down the facts,
leaving it to his reader to draw his own conclusions. In
this way he is deemed to be free to make impartial comments
on national and international events.
"But, in fact, as we all know, this theory of neutrality is
hardly ever put into practice. The big news agencies,
papers, radio and television reflect the bias and prejudices
of their publishers and proprietors. This is shown in the
choice of the stories, which are published; the way the
facts are arranged within each story or the manner in which
the stories are placed on the page. African revolutionaries
fighting heroically for the freedom of their country in
so-called Portuguese Guinea, Angola, Mozambique and
elsewhere are called rebel bands, while the
counter-revolutionary Cubans scheming in Miami and Caracas
are called 'Freedom Fighters'.
"Many events are hushed up or distorted. You know how Ghana
has become a victim of distortion by a section of the
Western press, because of our irrevocable stand against the
economic exploitation and political subjugation of Africa
and its people.
"We are emerging from colonialism, and we are being stifled
by imperialism and neo-colonialism. We face a long, hard
life-and-death struggle in which all of our people are
engaged. How can the journalist be "neutral" in
circumstances as these?
"We are in a revolutionary period, and we have a
revolutionary morality - in journalism as in all other walks
of life. We cannot be neutral between the oppressor and the
oppressed; the corrupter and the victim of corruption;
between the exploiter and the exploited; between the
betrayer and the betrayed. We do not believe that there are
necessarily two sides to every question; we see right and
wrong; just and unjust; progressive and reactionary;
positive and negative; friend and foe. We are partisan!
"There is a qualitative difference between our revolutionary
journalism and the journalism of the imperialist countries.
This difference lies mainly in the content of our
journalism, the purpose for which our stories are written,
and the audience towards which they are directed.
"First, our choice of stories is often different, for we pay
little attention to cheap sensationalism, scandal, crime and
gossip. The popular press of the imperialist countries and
neo-colonialist regimes is on the contrary full of articles
concerning the wealthy; private lives of exiled queens and
dukes and movie stars, who make up what is known as café
society. Secondly, our journalists view and analyse through
the spectrum of our revolutionary ideology. Armed with our
ideology, we can detect a trend in a seemingly minor event.
"For example, we know, even if the imperialists did not,
that the scattered shots fired in Algeria on November 1,
1954, sounded the death knell of colonialism in that
country; and we who were present knew, even if the
colonialists did not, that the first and the last
Pan-African Conference held in Manchester by a handful of
nationalists heralded the eventual triumph of the African
independence movement.
"Armed with our revolutionary ideology, we can detect a
pattern in a series of apparently unrelated events; for we
can see, even if the imperialists do not wish us to see it,
the interconnection between the fighting in the Congo, the
fighting in Angola and Mozambique and in the Dominican
Republic, and the fighting in Vietnam. The struggle against
imperialism is indivisible.
"The revolutionary journalist must have a clear conception
of his social aims in writing each story. The revolutionary
journalist must write to inform the people, because in our
African society, the destiny of all is linked up with the
destinies of each.
"The journalist must inform the people of what their
Government is doing; of what their compatriots are doing and
of what other peoples in similar situations are doing
throughout the world. He must inform them of the plots and
intrigues of the imperialists; the ceaseless attempts at
bribery and corruption by intelligence agencies and of steps
that are being taken to defeat the African renaissance. Our
journalists must write to educate the people.
"The world of today is extremely complex, and Africa, with
its legacy of colonialism must liberate itself with the
right knowledge and the open pen of truth.
"The revolutionary journalist writes for the people. His
audience is first and foremost Africa, and then the rest of
the world. Therefore, he bears in mind the interests;
education and psychology of this audience in everything he
writes. He is not writing for the elite. He is writing for
the masses - for our workers; our farmers; our clerks and
bus and taxi drivers - because all of our strength and all
of our achievements spring from them. The common man of
Africa is our strength.
"The journalist, therefore, must be close to the masses; he
must see the world through their eyes and interpret events
in a way in which the masses can readily understand.
"The role of the journalist of the African Revolution is no
mean one. He must help to defeat imperialism and
neo-colonialism, help with the speedy transformation of
Africa as a unified Continent. It is the privilege of the
journalist to participate in this historic movement.
"Our journalists have the high responsibility of
contributing to our victory, educating the people and
inspiring them. In this sense they are in the vanguard of
our revolution. It is their duty and responsibility to hail
those who advance the revolution and expose those who retard
it.
"These, fellow journalists, ladies and gentlemen, are some
of my reflections on the role of the journalist in Ghana and
in Africa, which I would like to share with you. I hope that
they may be of interest to those of you who are already
established journalists, and to our youth who are preparing
themselves for this exciting profession."
One has taken the liberty to quote Osagyefo Dr Nkrumah
extensively in order to assess whether the Ghana News Agency
has been fulfilling its obligations during the past 50
years.
Indeed one can with the least fear of contradiction state
that the Agency has lived up to its responsibility
creditably over the years.
In fact the credibility of the Agency has never been in
doubt. Many a Ghanaian intellectual is very comfortable with
GNA stories. Media analysts have made their position very
clear. One had advised: "If newspapers and radio stations
want to remain objective, credible and stay out of trouble
they should simply rely on GNA files."
The GNA has been able to get this far - supplying about 90
per cent of the news read over the private radio stations
throughout the country and substantial portion of
development news in the private newspapers; - definitely not
the sensational screaming banner headlines - because it had
remained focused on living up to the dreams of Osagyefo Dr
Kwame Nkrumah.
GNA
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