Ghana and Media Ethics

Ghana’s current position as Africa’s most conducive country for the exercise of media freedom is under threat. One would therefore not be surprised if Ghana slips in the next ranking by Reporters without Borders, the international media advocacy and monitory group which carries out the annual ranking. The source of the threat and the reason for Ghana’s possible slip is not difficult to find.

This year, a slideshow of events, took turns to produce unnecessary confrontation between some media organisations and individuals on the one hand and some state institutions on the other. These confrontations are either said to be between the police and the media or the media and the government based on the political binoculars with which one views such incidents.

Anyone with unadulterated sense of objectivity would, however, admit that it is the journalists and media practitioners who constitute the greatest threat to the unfettered and enviable freedom of the media enjoyed in the country.

Veteran journalist and Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Kabral Blay Amihere, was spot on when he stated recently that irresponsible journalism undermined the freedom of expression. Indeed, not only does it undermines media freedom and threatens our democracy, it also serves as a recipe for anarchy.

There is no doubt that the media are a powerful and influential social institution. The fact that Mr. Alhassane Ouattara and Laurent Gbagbo have started their predictable confrontation over ownership of the national television station sums up how indispensable the media are to the running of the state. Indeed it is a symbol of authority and media practitioners must guard their pride of place with responsible and ethical discharge of their duties. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Ghana today. It is now difficult to differentiate between journalists and politicians and one wonders how far journalism can go on this way.

At the re-launch of the Ghana Journalists Association Code of Ethics, the Minister of Information, John Tia Akologu, who also is a journalist by profession decried how journalists are parting ways with the traditional standards of the profession just to satisfy profit motives. He re-echoed the call on the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) to apply stiffer sanctions to journalists who violate the ethics of the profession.

In fact, the public is increasingly becoming disenchanted with the conduct of journalists and are calling for stiffer control of the media. Some have blamed the GJA and the NMC for always barking but lacking the ability to bite.

Ironically, and thanks to political expediency, those accusers of GJA and NMC are the same people to jump to the defence of recalcitrant journalists when the appropriate state institutions call them to order.

It is important to note that ethics are not laws. Besides, the 1992 Constitution of Ghana has given so much freedom and some perceived immunity to the media that some journalists are increasingly abusing it.

The main aim of the re-launch of the GJA Code of Ethics is to conscientize journalists to adhere to the ethics of their profession. And it is in the interest of journalist that they do just that.

The media are usually a restless torn pricking the flesh of politicians and any government anywhere in the world would jump at the least opportunity to clip the wings of the media. If the general public who are expected to defend the media are themselves calling for stiffer measures to tame them due to recklessness, then it must be a source of grave concern.

Journalists must at all times strive to live above board and make their responsibility to the survival and growth of our democracy their cardinal objective.

BY: MANASSEH AZURE AWUNI, A JOURNALIST.