A DEPUTY Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has blamed politicians in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the foul and misguided language which has afflicted the Ghanaian media lately.
He also described as “more dangerous than Somali pirates” radio and television presenters and other media practitioners who went into political alliances to rob Ghanaians of the truth, unity and objectivity.
In a plain talk at a forum in Accra organised by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) on the media dubbed “Media freedoms, free expression on a multi-party democracy”, Mr Ablakwa said under the guise of free speech the two parties had behaved hypocritically when their members goofed.
Citing two recent examples involving NDC party chairman Dr Kwabena Adjei, and NPP radio panellist Nana Darkwa, Mr Ablakwa said, “They chastise others who use intemperate language on their own, but quickly turn round to describe same language used by their members on others of a different political party as an exercise of free speech”.
He said when Nana Darkwa stated that former President Rawlings intentionally burnt down his house, the NPP hailed it as an expression of free speech but the NDC on the other hand saw it as loose talk.
On the other hand, in the infamous “there are many ways to kill a cat” speech by Dr Kwabena Adjei, the NDC described it as free speech, while the NPP perceived it as an attack on the judiciary.
Such hypocrisy, he warned, could derail the peace, stability and democratic process, if not checked.
Another danger he identified was the phenomenon of politicians forming alliances with hosts of radio and television programmes and described such hosts as “more dangerous than Somali pirates because they are robbing the listeners and Ghanaians of the truth, unity and objectivity”.
“Just for their immediate comfort, some politicians and their media allies have thrown decorum and objectivity to the dogs,” he added.
The Chairman of NCCE, Mr Laari Bimi, also took a swipe at the media for publishing falsehood, deepening tribal sentiments and ethnocentrism and leaving behind their core mandate of presenting objective views to the people to make informed choices.
He said they had allowed themselves to be used for political gain, especially in the 2008 elections, a situation which brought the country to the brink of civil strife and anarchy.
He was also unhappy about the conduct of some members of the bench whose behaviour lent credence to the perception that they were corrupt and biased and stated that, “I have on authority that we have a case of telephone justice in Ghana”.
Dr Vladimir Antwi Danso, a Senior Fellow at the Legon Centre for International Affairs (LECIA), identified “media terrorism” as a dangerous phenomenon that was creeping into the landscape of the Fourth Estate of the Realm.
He explained that instead of using their media to provide the “gullible” Ghanaian public with issues and shape the process of attaining development, the media had resorted to hate speech and propaganda with some media practitioners publicly declaring their affiliation to some political parties.
He expressed the fear that the experiences of the initial stages of things that led to the Rwandan genocide was being replicated by the Ghanaian media.
Dr Antwi-Danso noted that the gullibility of the Ghanaian was so intense that they took anything the media put out as sacrosanct even when they were opinions by commentators and serial callers.
He said another dimension of the issue was that people who committed crime and atrocities were also taking undue advantage of the polarisation in the country to hide under such cover and this normally yielded dividend because the media would not talk about the crime but would concentrate on which political party the criminal belonged to.
The Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr Kabral Blay Amihere, urged the media to educate themselves on issues before they reported on them in order to not pour their ignorance on the Ghanaians.
He also appealed to the media not to be the foot note of the ambitions of politicians, but explained that there was nothing wrong in believing and sharing in the ideals of a political party.
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