Sulemana Braimah addressing the media
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is concerned about the continuous use of intemperate language on the country?s airwaves.
A recent report launched by the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) under its newly-introduced campaign for the promotion of issues and decent language for peaceful, free and fair elections in Ghana in 2012, indicates that the incidence of indecent language is still on the high.
The Deputy Executive Director of the Foundation, Sulemana Braimah said ?over the three-month period, reports were received on the programmes monitored on each of the 31 radio stations selected for the exercise and in all 181 indecent expressions were recorded.
The objective of the project is to sensitize the general public about which officials or affiliates of the various political parties or radio stations are the most abusive in their expressions.
Giving the breakdown of indecent expressions, 64 were unsubstantiated allegations, 58 insulting and offensive comments, 17 provocative remarks, 15 confrontation and violence, 15 innuendoes, 6 expressions that promoted divisiveness, two expression contained tribal slur, two expressions contained prejudice and bigotry while two were gender specific insults.
The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) topped with 89 per cent, followed by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) with 70 per cent, CPP, 3 per cent; PNC, 1 per cent; PPP, 1 percent; IPP, 1 per cent; URP, 1 per cent and others 14 per cent.
Accra-based radio station Oman FM recorded 49 indecent expressions, followed by Radio Gold with 14, Citi FM, 13; Kessben FM, 12; Peace FM, 12; among others. Joy FM and Ura Radio recorded the least indecent expressions.
President of the Ghana Association of Writers (GAW), Kwasi Gyan Apenteng urged the media to ensure peaceful, free and fair elections and continue to insist on the use of decent expressions by people who feature on their platforms.
The media should continue to perform their legitimate role in accordance with the ethics of the journalism profession to hold people accountable and it is important for them to appreciate that they must also be accountable to the masses through their conduct, he said.
By Mariam Ama Yeduah
