LAST Wednesday, November 21, 2012 at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Presidential Candidates Debate in Accra, the four personalities were asked a question about the media. And some of the responses were not the best, especially in the light of how far the media itself has come and the huge role it has played and continues to play in the evolution of our constitutional democracy and our total development.
FIRST of all, all four candidates conducted themselves well in terms of obeying the rules of the debate and doing their best to use the opportunity offered to broadcast policies and programmes they intend to roll out for Ghanaians if elected president.
As to assessing the validity or otherwise of what each candidate said and rating them in terms of overall performance, we on Today leave that to Ghanaians, who will be the ultimate judges when they cast their ballots in December.
IT is not necessary to print the question asked on the media or the names of the specific candidates and what each said on the subject, because our primal concern is with the tendency of some to bundle together Ghana?s current sophisticated media into one entity and create the impression that the media is simplistic, a purveyor of untruths and a troublemaker.
WE on Today will be the first to admit that sections of the media and even specific journalists have behaved and continue to behave in ways that imbrues our otherwise very good record. There have been instances when newspapers published stories of allegations of wrongdoing by certain personalities without supplying proof. In some cases, when the victim requested the simple journalistic correcting act of retraction these journalists (editors) refused. In some instances, such cases went to court and the newspapers were found guilty and made to pay huge fines.
IN some instances, media houses break section(s) of our own Code of Ethics in reporting and publishing or broadcasting stories, and some refuse to grant the other parties subsequent rights they deserve per our Code. There have also been instances when journalists have been caught in behaviour unbecoming of persons whose very calling makes it a duty on them to be role models.
HOWEVER, the media as a whole has grown from that almost non-existent entity (of only sports newspapers and state media) it was in the 1980s into a sophisticated multi-system of both public and private media houses in both broadcasting and publishing, and even online journalism.
THE vastness and still growing numbers of the hierarchy of the media and their various levels of complexity affords all citizens the rights to information, freedom of expression and free speech. It has also made the society open in ways that sends any piece of information to all corners of Ghana in barely minutes of it being picked up by journalists.
COLLECTIVELY, the media has been prominent among personalities and entities that have played various roles in preserving our Fourth Republic by being present at polling stations all over the country and reporting on happenings in ways that generally keeps troublemakers at bay.
The media has also done a lot in helping processes aimed at ensuring transparency and accountability in our country by seeking out and reporting cases of corruption to expose wrongdoing and those doing it.
WE must, however, admit that when it comes to the role of the media in the development of our country, there is more room for improvement. Yet it is our duty to call attention to the potential danger when any leader, or anyone for that matter, takes a position that picks only the negative acts by some ? indeed, few ? of our members and using that as cosmetic representation of an entire sophisticated system playing awesome roles in our collective development and preserving out Fourth Republic.
THE danger is that when leaders or persons in position where they could make impact on policy take such a position they could one day make laws that could roll back the fruits of a free and hard-working media we have today. It is our hope that persons with such a potentially dangerous view of Ghana?s media will discard it before it begins to rule their actions to the detriment of all.
