Friday, August 19, 2011

Muslims Donate to Save 1 Year Old Bintu


By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri


THE MUSLIM congregation of Dare Salam Mosque situated within the Airport Residential area has donated an estimated GH¢8,000 to Bintu Fatima Ibrahim, a one year ten month old baby, who has a complex hole-in-heart condition.
The donation was to enable Fatima undergo a second operation in order to correct her condition called ‘Tetralogy of Fallot.’
Sheikh Armiya’u, substantive Imam of the Mosque, said the donation was in response to a publication in DAILY GUIDE captioned: “1 Year Old Bintu Needs Help.”
It may be recalled in that publication that Dr. M. Tamatey of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital’s Cardiothoracic Centre, signed a statement to appeal for funds for Bintu Fatima Ibrahim.
The statement said Bintu had had her first operation and requires a second and final open-heart operation costing GH¢24,000 to correct all the defects.
She was required to pay GH¢12,000 while the Ghana Heart foundation opted to pay 50 percent of the total cost.
Sheikh Armiya’u said the congregation of Dare Salam therefore launched an appeal and dedicated a whole sermon to the plight of Fatima Ibrahim which enabled them raise the money.
He stated that they were happy to associate themselves with a value that is upheld in the month of Ramadan “and that is the value of giving to the poor and needy and being compassionate to the weak.”
He further hoped the token donation will bring relief to the little child.


Doctor Lawrence Sereboe, Cardiothoracic surgeon, at the National Cardiothoracic Center who received the donation thanked the team on behalf of Fatima’s family.
“This will help her have a normal, quality life expectancy so when groups, individuals and benevolent organisations come to the aid of these children then we know that it is an investment in their lives,” he said.
He said the donation will aid in settling the required GH¢12,000 after the Ghana Heart Foundation paid 50 percent of the total cost.
Dr. Sereboe said the amount will cater for the cost of surgery, anesthesia, intensive care and accommodation for Fatima.

Lutheran Church Ordains New Pastor


By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri


THE EVANGELICAL Lutheran Church, Ghana has officially ordained Nicholas Salifu as its pastor in a colorful ceremony held at the St. Paul Lutheran Church, Kanda.
The ordination ceremony performed by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Paul Kofi Fynn, President of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ghana, was graced by hundreds of people across the country.
The new pastor joins the existing team of pastors at the church in their pastoral ministry as preachers of the Good News.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church is the largest protestant church in the world founded by Martin Luther King Jr. after breaking away from the Catholic Church in 1521.


Rt. Rev. Fynn stressed the need for pastors to be circumspect in their dealings with their members.
He said they should lead exemplary lives using the Bible as their yardstick.
In his acceptance speech, Pastor Nicholas Salifu pledged to preach the gospel in its totality as he shepherds the flock of Christ.
Many well-wishers presented gifts to Pastor Salifu and prayed for God’s guidance and blessing as he embarks on his pastoral journey.
Nicholas Salifu joined the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1971. In 1978, he was sent to the Lutheran Church Seminary in Nigeria for four years after which he went to the University of Ghana, Legon where he read sociology and religion.
After his first degree, he was sent to Bawku in the Upper East Region where he opened several congregations and translated the catechism into the Kusa language for the people in the region.
Pastor Salifu was then sent to the US to undertake a Master of Divinity programme at the St. Luis Seminary after working for a while in Bawku.

Wisconsin Holds First Graduation


By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

WISCONSIN INTERNATIONAL University Collage (WIUC) has held its maiden graduation for Forensic & Investigative Psychology and Paralegal Studies.
The ceremony, witnessed 16 participants from different professional backgrounds being awarded certificates for successfully completing a six-week intensive course as well as passing all requisite examinations.
Commenting on the structure of the courses, Vice Chancellor of WIUC, Professor Kaku Sagary Nokoe, said the forensic and investigative psychology course explored the styles and patterns of criminal actions in all the types of offences.
“It also looked at verifiable procedures required for examining materials during investigations,” said Nokoe.
He further observed that contributions made by psychologists to the legal process must have an empirical, systematic and scientific basis hence the introduction of the course.
The vice chancellor furthermore noted that the certificate programme in paralegal studies was to prepare participants to address the key roles of legal assistants.
Consequently, “the course offers a unique mix of legal theory and practical skills applications.”
Justice Isaac Duose, an appeal court judge and chairman of WIUC-GH Council, stated that the new programmes offered by the university from part of a virgin area where people have little or no knowledge, therefore the aim of the certificate courses is to strengthen the capacity of participants.
“Anybody who wants to participate in a profession must have formal training,” he said.
He added that the course content would qualify one for exemption in some United Kingdom, US and Canada based professional programmes in the disciplines.
Justice Duose stressed that while efforts are being made towards accreditation for regular post-graduate programmes for the interim and the first graduands, “they will qualify to progress to our advanced certificate modules which will be of the same 6-week duration or to the Diploma (once accredited).”
He thanked the participants for having faith in Wisconsin and urged them to form an association “and push forward for recognition.”


Graduands in a group photograph with Professor Sagary Nokoe and Board Members of WIUC

India Celebrates 65th Independence Day

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri


The India High Commissioner to Ghana, Her Excellence Ruchi Ghanashyam together with Indians residing in Ghana have held a flag-raising ceremony to mark India’s 65th Independence Day in Accra.
The ceremony, held at the residence of H. E. Ruchi Ghanashyam, was attended by high-profile Indians from diverse economic and political background.
Reading an address by His Excellency Pratibha Devisingh Patil to the people of India, H. E. Ghanashyam said the anniversary signifies an important day in the history of India.
“This significant day in our nation’s calendar takes us back to the events that made our country a free nation,” she said.
H. E. Ghanashyam said India’s independence was won on the principles of truth and non-violence thus making their freedom struggle exceptional.
“Voices of freedom against oppression and colonial power were encouraged by India’s example.”
She said Indians can therefore be proud to belong to a country that has proved its greatness through values.
H. E. Ghanashyam said the day also provides an opportunity for retrospection “a time to take well thought out measures and to prepare well for the future.”
She said the real strength of a nation is judged not by the challenges it faces but responses to those challenges.
“We, as inheritors of a great legacy, carry a responsibility to stand by truth and justice, to continue to conduct ourselves in a manner that is in consonance with India’s standing.”
She also urged participants to analyze situations and find considered solutions in order to address the challenges they might be facing in a thoughtful manner.
“Our actions today, our decisions today will fashion our tomorrow. A deep sense of responsibility is a call of our time, all citizens have to demonstrate great maturity and self restrain as we deal with our problems,” she stated.
She also stressed the need to focus on education and skill development to build capacity in order to meet the requirements of the nation.
“I call on citizens to work with full commitment and dedication, honesty and integrity and with a sense of pride. If we do this there is much that we can achieve as a nation,” she noted.


Awards were presented to winners, who partook in an essay competition, organized by the High Commission of India in Accra to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.
Participants between the ages of 19 and 22 wrote an essay not less than 1000 words on the theme: “How Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s vision as reflected in the poem Mind Without Fear relevant in today’s world, particularly Ghana.”
GH¢500, GH¢300, GH¢200 were given to the first, second and third prize winners respectively in addition to books and Digital Video Disc (DVDs).
Certificates of appreciation, books and DVDs were also given to participants as consolation prizes.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Environmental Pollution:
Ghana’s E-waste Problem

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

Mohammed Suiad sits under the cab of a truck in the heart of Ghana’s biggest scrap yard, Agbogbloshie, with his friends, as he gets ready to burn a bundle of cables he managed to scavenge from discarded electronic gadgets.


After some minutes of joke-cracking, he stands and moves towards a spot where he sets his bundle on fire with the help of foam. Soon fumes from the burning cables engulf the young boy of about 20 years who stands concerned.
Another young scrap worker walks through the thick dark smoke emanating from the burning electronics and cables to ensure his metal is intact.
After several minutes of waiting for the fire to melt the plastic insulator, Iddrissu Inusah cools off the metal with water and collects it into a container.
“We burn the cables to get copper, which we sell for money,” says 19-year-old Iddrissu, who hails from the northern part of Ghana.
“We don’t have a specific amount for which we sell it,” Iddrissu added. “We take whatever the buyers give us, but if it weighs more than 100 kilograms, we get GH¢5.00”
Like Iddrissu, Mohammed earns GH¢5.00, most of which he sends to his parents up north.
Other boys of the same age as Mohammed and Iddrissu also burn wires to get copper in order to earn a living.
These children, together with scrap handlers, work in appalling conditions which constantly expose them and communities nearby to serious health and environmental hazards.
The burning process, in particular, releases toxic substances into the atmosphere, soils and bodies of water. This has serious health consequences, such as acute damage to the lungs as a result of inhalation of fumes from heavy metals, such as lead and cadmium.
“I know the fire is not good for our health,” Mohammed admits, “but, because of the money we get, we continue to stay here. We don’t like it, but we are working like that.”

Like most developing countries, Ghana does not have proper recycling facilities to manage the increasing influx of used electronics that are being imported into the country.
“There are no clear and specific national regulations that define, restrict or prohibit the importation of these ‘second hand equipment termed ‘e-waste’,” says this year’s Ghana E-Waste Country Assessment, written by SBC E-Waste Africa Project, an organization implemented under an international e-waste treaty.
“Given the absence of controls and regulations, e-waste enters the country under the guise of second-hand goods without restriction or detection.”
Thus it has become an open and ready source of employment and point of entry for economic migrants, usually with no education and employable skills.
Michael Bush, a Nigerian in his late twenties, sits under a shed as he sorts out computer chips which he finds across the length and breadth of the country. He has worked as a scrap exporter at Agbogbloshie for five years.
“I export from 500 to 1000 kilograms of computer chips to Germany and United States of America,” says Michael. “When the computer chips are exported to these countries, the valuable metals are extracted through melting of the chips.”
He noted, however, that the business is not lucrative.
“You can suffer to sort out the valuable metals you want, and after shipment you will get about 20% to 40% of the money spent.”

The informal nature of the business has also prevented workers from learning about the associated risks, in order to organize and seek social protection and benefits to improve working conditions.
“I don’t know about any new legislation governing what we do here,” Mohammed says.
Laws and Regulations
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana spells out the fundamentals for the protection of the environment.
Economic Development Act 36 (9) states, “The State shall take appropriate measures needed to protect and safeguard the national environment for posterity; and shall seek co-operation with other states and bodies for the purposes of protecting the wider international environment for mankind.”
Furthermore, clause 10 of the same Act quotes, “The State shall safeguard the health, safety and welfare of all persons in employment, and shall establish the basis for the full deployment of the creative potential of all Ghanaians.”
However, government is yet to pass its own law to restrict the importation of e-waste as well as regulate its disposal.
The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Ms. Sherry Ayittey, in recent media reportage has said Parliament is on the verge of passing the Environmental Bill into law. But just like other bills, parliament is processing, the environment bill will have to wait.
Internationally, Ghana has signed onto numerous international agreements related to harmful pollution. Some, like the Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol of Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, require the country to make research contributions.
Others, like Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation on Environment and Development, call on Ghana to develop in an environmentally sustainable way.
In 2005, Ghana signed the Basel Convention Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposals. The agreement aims at minimizing the generation of hazardous waste, reducing its movement, and ensuring that it is disposed of as close to its origins as possible.
According to SBC E-Waste Africa Project, an organization implemented under the Basel secretariat’s framework, these laws go largely un-enforced.
In 1994, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Act was passed, and the EPA was tasked with prescribing standards and guidelines surrounding toxic waste. The EPA is also responsible for control, generation, treatment, storage, transportation and disposal of industrial waste. Finally, a section of the act gave birth to the Hazardous Chemicals Committee.
Despite multiple phone calls, a letter of information request, and a trip to its headquarters in Accra, EPA communications staff declined to make a source available for interview until well after this story’s deadline.


Job Creation
Self-help Initiative Support Services (SISS), a Ghanaian skills training NGO funded by Comic Relief from the UK, through its Urban Lifeline Project, recruits young people from the scarp yard and slums and gives them training in bead-making, hair-dressing and computer literacy.
Shirazu Yussif, 28, is a beneficiary of last year’s SISS training modules. His life has improved economically as he now holds a set of car keys and a cell phone.

“As soon as I finished my computer classes, I said, ‘What can I do?’ I cannot put it down. I have to achieve something.

“(SISS) brought me two computers, and I put them inside the shop and started lecturing people there.”

Nonetheless, Mohammed and Iddrisssu have not heard of either Yussif or SISS. And they don’t necessarily believe outsiders who come into their community to talk about such opportunities.

“No one has come here with that offer,” says Mohammed. “Even if they come, they don’t tell us the truth. It’s been three years now that some people came to tell us that they will open a company here but they did not return.”

The government, meanwhile, has pledged to assist with skills development. Speaking at a recent conference to explore the employment picture of Agbogbloshie, Asante, Ibrahim Murtala, Deputy National Coordinator with the National Youth Employment Program (NYEP), in charge of communications invited SISS to submit a proposal.

“The NYEP is more than willing to assist once you submit a proposal and that proposal is convincing,” he said. “And I don’t think with the work you are doing, we can’t work together.”

He also outlined a cross-section of programming he said reaches thousands of young Ghanaians.

“Some are given paid internships in government offices, an opportunity that gives them an advantage in a national job market that demands work experience for gainful employment.”

He said others have found work with the police services, while those with more significant educational challenges have been placed with road maintenance crews.

Solutions
“Both past and present governments have shown little interest in improving social conditions in the slum,” said NYEP Program Manager Yaw Asante.

Meanwhile, Ghanaian family structures put an additional strain on the situation. Many young people are sent to Accra by their families. Asante calls this a mandate. When SISS approaches them with training opportunities, they are often unable to make a decision.

“When we approach people, they say they came to Accra to make money,” he said. “Therefore, they have to go back home to the north or from wherever they are from and get a new mandate.”

Government has however given a strong warning to countries which use Ghana as their dumping sites. But is this enough assurance that our environment will be protected?

GCB Supports Korle Bu Eye Project
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

GHANA COMMERCIAL Bank (GCB) has donated GH¢75,750 to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) towards the Moorfields Eye Project of the University of Ghana Medical School.
The project, aimed at constructing a new Ophthalmic Center at Korle-Bu, will improve quality eye care delivery in the country when completed.


Making the donation on behalf of the bank, Nana Duncan, Public Relations Manager, said the bank’s contribution was informed by the importance GCB attached to the health of Ghanaians.
“Health development occupies a strategic position in GCB’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda,” he noted.
He said the financial assistance will positively impact the training and re-training of more eye specialists.


Dr. Samuel Akafo, Head of the Eye Department at KBTH, said the hospital was expected to fund $500,000 for completion of the project hence the timeliness of the donation.
He added that if ten other companies followed GCB’s example “by donating $50,000 each,” the project would be completed on time.
Dr. Nii Otu Nartey, Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, was appreciative of the gesture by GCB and expressed the hope that other organisations would contribute as well.
“We still need funds from other organizations because we must maintain the center after the project is completed,” he said.

In a related development, Ridge Hospital has also received GH¢12,785.00 from GCB for the procurement of Sonoplus equipment for the Electrotherapy Unit which is under the Physiotherapy department of the hospital.
The donation was to enhance the Electrotherapy Unit since it handles neuro-treatments, physical therapy, orthopeadic physiotherapy, pediatric physiotherapy and general health care.
Gaetam Adangabey, Head of the Physiotherapy Department, expressed gratefulness for the donation and hoped that the healthy relationship between GCB and Ridge Hospital will grow from strength to strength.
The Politics of Ghanaian News Media
By William Yaw Owusu, Charles Takyi-Boadu, Jamila Akweley Okertchiri &Isaac Osei
This is the first of a two-part series DAILY GUIDE is publishing to explore ethics, objectivity and politics in Ghanaian news media. Next week, the paper talks to practitioners.

One morning on Ring Road, Frank Tubua Okuadjo stopped at a newspaper stand and scanned the headlines. As a young, educated Ghanaian, he thinks about media objectivity and considers it important.

“I don’t want it to be political,” he said.



He pointed to various titles on the stand and ticked them off as supporters of different parties. Partisanship in the press is obvious, he said.

Kofi Hanson, another reader at the stand, agreed.

“The Daily Graphic writes more about things of the government than any other things,” he said. “Some of the papers talk for the government, and others talk for the other parties. Every paper tries to make a good image of their parties. Generally, I like the papers to write something that concerns the nation, not the other parties.”

Press freedom is enshrined in international law, as well as in Ghana’s constitution. Nationally, the media has established a code of ethics by which to conduct itself. The Ghana Journalists Association Code of Ethics behooves media to deliver fair and unbiased news to readers like Hanson and Okuadjo.

Ownership and accountability

There’s a general consensus that most media houses in Ghana are owned by politicians or former politicians, and the perception is that journalists who work for these outlets are often required to tow the political line.

Fred Oware, first national vice chairman of the NPP, has one foot in the political arena, and the other in media, as owner of Choice FM.

“It may very well be that a lot of the media houses either are owned or affiliated one way through the ownership structure with some political parties,” he said. “I do not contest that. But to make a general statement that the people who work there are either coerced, influenced or expected – that might be a perception that people easily lend themselves to.”

Freddy Blay is a for MP and owner of DAILY GUIDE. He was a Member of Parliament for Ellembele in the Western Region and was once the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament. He shrugs off criticism that media is a political tool.

“It’s a myth,” he said. “It’s not true. I challenge that. I contest that.”

In the case of state-owned media, the relationship is more pronounced. Government maintains close contact with editors, briefing them on its policies and, as reported in the Daily Guide yesterday, occasionally reprimanding them for unflattering press.

“(President John Atta Mills) will call the media and tell them what the government has been able to do or intends to do,” said Yaw Boateng Gyan, national organizer with National Democratic Congress (NDC). “We were thinking that this could be done quarterly. But looking at the schedule of the president, that’s not possible. So we do it every six months.”

Rather than coerce reporters to conform to a political position, said Oware, owners simply hire practitioners who are already sympathetic to a particular platform.

“I do not think that there’s a deliberate effort on the part of owners – I mean I can speak for myself – making a point that they will go and influence editorial policies.”

Gyan agreed. He said the media in Ghana is enormously polarized and that it makes more sense to recruit reporters and editors from inside the political fold, rather than crossing party lines.

“If I am a leading member of a political party and want a practitioner; I would go for someone who shares the same ideology with me, so that is exactly what is happening,” he said. “You won’t see any NDC man going in for an NPP man to come and work for him because there would be conflict of ideas.”

For his part, Blay claimed to be more interested in generating revenue and contributing to national develpoment than influencing editorial direction. He said DAILY GUIDE once referred to him as a Robert Mugabe type character, a sleight he shook off.

“Some issues, I disagree with them,” he said of his editorial staff. “If what you write sells, I’m happy with it.”

Business side of media

All three acknowledge that media houses tend to favour different areas of the political spectrum. But despite the polarized environment, owners are more concerned with the bottom line. Whatever sells – partisanship, sensationalism, bias – will continue to be produced.

Whereas Blay is focused on sales, the profit motive is more complicated for Oware. He suggested a link between profit and partisan promotion.

“If I were even an investor in a media house, and I have some political interest, my overall interest would be to project the image of my party,” he said. “That in itself, you would not find anything wrong with it, because as an investor that is naturally the way I’d look at my profits.”

According to Blay, business considerations trickle down into the newsroom and have a positive effect on ethics and morale. In an industry where soli payments are common, high selling papers can have a positive impact on ethics. Increased revenue provides the financial base for media houses to adequately compensate staff. In that case, journalists would no longer rely on supplementing their income through back channels.

“At the end of the day, you must pay the people who work at the paper,” he said. “You must make profit so you can pay the people, so they will do their job well.”

Blay also said a paper’s legitimacy can be determined by how established its business is. Offices, advertising, and staff indicate financial transactions from sources likely outside the political realm. The newspapers Blay decried as flyers, he said, are probably funded with political cash.

“How many do they sell? Are they surviving? Where are their offices? How many do they employ? Some of them may not even have offices. You call that a paper?

“How do they survive? Political money.”

Gyan openly acknowledged the NDC’s involvement in funding media, but said it happens right across the board.

“I can confidently say that some of the political parties, including my own political party, are behind some of the papers, are even financing some of these papers to put these things out there,” he said.

Ethics and objectivity

The Ghana Journalists Association Code of Ethics is composed of 17 articles that set ethical and professional guidelines for journalists. They cover everything from dealing with grief stricken sources to plagiarism. In particular, Article 17 warns against sensationalism, while Article 1, subsection 2, reinforces the public’s right to unbiased information.

“The media is going beyond some bounds of propriety,” said Oware, “delving into people’s private lives instead of sticking to the issues, sometimes deliberately or accidentally straining to areas where it does not help anybody but rather adds to the confusion.”

Often, the impact goes beyond mere confusion.

“Let’s admit it,” he said. “The media industry is a weapon. It’s a sharp, political weapon.”

Gyan said he was dealt a blow by that weapon in the wake of the NDC’s Sunyani leadership congress. He rejected the idea that his party is violent, an accusation he said comes regularly from DAILY GUIDE. He also took issue with the way the congress was framed, as a fractious exercise in disunity.

“You have some media houses in this country that are just taking sides,” he said. “No matter what the party does, positive reportage, you won’t get it.”

Up at the ownership level, in the offices of Blay or Oware, the idea of media ethics doesn’t have a lot of traction. It’s not that they are opposed to ethical conventions, but rather that they see them as a practitioner’s concern.

“I’m an owner,” said Blay. “You are a professional. They are two very different roles we play. I’m not an editor. I come to see what’s up, whether people are stealing and what is being produced. I’m more interested in the adverts and whether they will come. When you talk about ethics, it’s your profession, not mine.”

Oware built on that sentiment, saying a journalist’s integrity is his or her own. Reputation is sacred, he said, and a solid reputation will persevere through a change in government.

“Individual media men ought to strive to make a name for their individual selves,” he said. “That they are impartial, principled and that they would stick with the truth.”

“It’s an issue of development.”

In many ways, the free press in Ghana is only 20 years old. In the decades leading up to 1992, when the Republic was declared and the new constitution unveiled, freedom of the press was not a reality.

“Until then, you had one broadcasting station, one television station, and two or three newspapers in the country,” said Oware. “When the ban on these activities was lifted, you had, naturally, politicians championing the cause of press freedom in the country.”

He said the presence of politicians in media is a logical result of that championship.

Blay said DAILY GUIDE was started in the 1980s, under the banner of SPORTS GUIDE. He framed it primarily as a business venture, an attempt to cash in on the lucrative world of athleticism. At the same time, there was one page of politics buried in the paper, something that occasionally caused problems for the publishers.

“I’ve been in jail at least a year,” he said.


Literacy and education are also major factors in media development. A literate, learned public will demand more from its media. According to the CIA World Factbook, literacy rates in Ghana have actually gone down in recent years. At the turn of the millennium, the national literacy rate was 64.5 per cent. It spiked in 2003-06, coming in at 74.8 per cent. In 2011, it’s 57.9 per cent.

But Ghana’s economy is on the rise. National and per capita GDP have been steadily increasing in recent years, and the World Bank forecasts Ghana’s economy as the fastest growing in sub-Saharan Africa.

“When the country’s economy improves,” said Blay, “I think there is a future for companies to advertise in the paper, for entertainers to read the paper, for businessmen to know what’s going on, for people to read the cartoons and love it.”

In the interim, media houses, especially practitioners, are in charge of their own destinies.

“I want the media practitioners to be neutral,” said Gyan.

Monday, August 1, 2011

The Politics of Ghanaian News Media
By William Yaw Owusu, Charles Takyi-Boadu, Jamila Akweley Okertchiri &Isaac Osei

This is the first of a two-part series DAILY GUIDE is publishing to explore ethics, objectivity and politics in Ghanaian news media. Next week, the paper talks to practitioners.

One morning on Ring Road, Frank Tubua Okuadjo stopped at a newspaper stand and scanned the headlines. As a young, educated Ghanaian, he thinks about media objectivity and considers it important.

“I don’t want it to be political,” he said.

He pointed to various titles on the stand and ticked them off as supporters of different parties. Partisanship in the press is obvious, he said.

Kofi Hanson, another reader at the stand, agreed.

“The Daily Graphic writes more about things of the government than any other things,” he said. “Some of the papers talk for the government, and others talk for the other parties. Every paper tries to make a good image of their parties. Generally, I like the papers to write something that concerns the nation, not the other parties.”

Press freedom is enshrined in international law, as well as in Ghana’s constitution. Nationally, the media has established a code of ethics by which to conduct itself. The Ghana Journalists Association Code of Ethics behooves media to deliver fair and unbiased news to readers like Hanson and Okuadjo.

Ownership and accountability

There’s a general consensus that most media houses in Ghana are owned by politicians or former politicians, and the perception is that journalists who work for these outlets are often required to tow the political line.

Fred Oware, first national vice chairman of the NPP, has one foot in the political arena, and the other in media, as owner of Choice FM.

“It may very well be that a lot of the media houses either are owned or affiliated one way through the ownership structure with some political parties,” he said. “I do not contest that. But to make a general statement that the people who work there are either coerced, influenced or expected – that might be a perception that people easily lend themselves to.”

Freddy Blay is a for MP and owner of DAILY GUIDE. He was a Member of Parliament for Ellembele in the Western Region and was once the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament. He shrugs off criticism that media is a political tool.

“It’s a myth,” he said. “It’s not true. I challenge that. I contest that.”

In the case of state-owned media, the relationship is more pronounced. Government maintains close contact with editors, briefing them on its policies and, as reported in the Daily Guide yesterday, occasionally reprimanding them for unflattering press.

“(President John Atta Mills) will call the media and tell them what the government has been able to do or intends to do,” said Yaw Boateng Gyan, national organizer with National Democratic Congress (NDC). “We were thinking that this could be done quarterly. But looking at the schedule of the president, that’s not possible. So we do it every six months.”

Rather than coerce reporters to conform to a political position, said Oware, owners simply hire practitioners who are already sympathetic to a particular platform.

“I do not think that there’s a deliberate effort on the part of owners – I mean I can speak for myself – making a point that they will go and influence editorial policies.”

Gyan agreed. He said the media in Ghana is enormously polarized and that it makes more sense to recruit reporters and editors from inside the political fold, rather than crossing party lines.

“If I am a leading member of a political party and want a practitioner; I would go for someone who shares the same ideology with me, so that is exactly what is happening,” he said. “You won’t see any NDC man going in for an NPP man to come and work for him because there would be conflict of ideas.”

For his part, Blay claimed to be more interested in generating revenue and contributing to national develpoment than influencing editorial direction. He said DAILY GUIDE once referred to him as a Robert Mugabe type character, a sleight he shook off.

“Some issues, I disagree with them,” he said of his editorial staff. “If what you write sells, I’m happy with it.”

Business side of media

All three acknowledge that media houses tend to favour different areas of the political spectrum. But despite the polarized environment, owners are more concerned with the bottom line. Whatever sells – partisanship, sensationalism, bias – will continue to be produced.

Whereas Blay is focused on sales, the profit motive is more complicated for Oware. He suggested a link between profit and partisan promotion.

“If I were even an investor in a media house, and I have some political interest, my overall interest would be to project the image of my party,” he said. “That in itself, you would not find anything wrong with it, because as an investor that is naturally the way I’d look at my profits.”

According to Blay, business considerations trickle down into the newsroom and have a positive effect on ethics and morale. In an industry where soli payments are common, high selling papers can have a positive impact on ethics. Increased revenue provides the financial base for media houses to adequately compensate staff. In that case, journalists would no longer rely on supplementing their income through back channels.

“At the end of the day, you must pay the people who work at the paper,” he said. “You must make profit so you can pay the people, so they will do their job well.”

Blay also said a paper’s legitimacy can be determined by how established its business is. Offices, advertising, and staff indicate financial transactions from sources likely outside the political realm. The newspapers Blay decried as flyers, he said, are probably funded with political cash.

“How many do they sell? Are they surviving? Where are their offices? How many do they employ? Some of them may not even have offices. You call that a paper?

“How do they survive? Political money.”

Gyan openly acknowledged the NDC’s involvement in funding media, but said it happens right across the board.

“I can confidently say that some of the political parties, including my own political party, are behind some of the papers, are even financing some of these papers to put these things out there,” he said.

Ethics and objectivity


The Ghana Journalists Association Code of Ethics is composed of 17 articles that set ethical and professional guidelines for journalists. They cover everything from dealing with grief stricken sources to plagiarism. In particular, Article 17 warns against sensationalism, while Article 1, subsection 2, reinforces the public’s right to unbiased information.

“The media is going beyond some bounds of propriety,” said Oware, “delving into people’s private lives instead of sticking to the issues, sometimes deliberately or accidentally straining to areas where it does not help anybody but rather adds to the confusion.”

Often, the impact goes beyond mere confusion.

“Let’s admit it,” he said. “The media industry is a weapon. It’s a sharp, political weapon.”

Gyan said he was dealt a blow by that weapon in the wake of the NDC’s Sunyani leadership congress. He rejected the idea that his party is violent, an accusation he said comes regularly from DAILY GUIDE. He also took issue with the way the congress was framed, as a fractious exercise in disunity.

“You have some media houses in this country that are just taking sides,” he said. “No matter what the party does, positive reportage, you won’t get it.”

Up at the ownership level, in the offices of Blay or Oware, the idea of media ethics doesn’t have a lot of traction. It’s not that they are opposed to ethical conventions, but rather that they see them as a practitioner’s concern.

“I’m an owner,” said Blay. “You are a professional. They are two very different roles we play. I’m not an editor. I come to see what’s up, whether people are stealing and what is being produced. I’m more interested in the adverts and whether they will come. When you talk about ethics, it’s your profession, not mine.”

Oware built on that sentiment, saying a journalist’s integrity is his or her own. Reputation is sacred, he said, and a solid reputation will persevere through a change in government.

“Individual media men ought to strive to make a name for their individual selves,” he said. “That they are impartial, principled and that they would stick with the truth.”

“It’s an issue of development.”

In many ways, the free press in Ghana is only 20 years old. In the decades leading up to 1992, when the Republic was declared and the new constitution unveiled, freedom of the press was not a reality.

“Until then, you had one broadcasting station, one television station, and two or three newspapers in the country,” said Oware. “When the ban on these activities was lifted, you had, naturally, politicians championing the cause of press freedom in the country.”

He said the presence of politicians in media is a logical result of that championship.

Blay said DAILY GUIDE was started in the 1980s, under the banner of SPORTS GUIDE. He framed it primarily as a business venture, an attempt to cash in on the lucrative world of athleticism. At the same time, there was one page of politics buried in the paper, something that occasionally caused problems for the publishers.

“I’ve been in jail at least a year,” he said.

Literacy and education are also major factors in media development. A literate, learned public will demand more from its media. According to the CIA World Factbook, literacy rates in Ghana have actually gone down in recent years. At the turn of the millennium, the national literacy rate was 64.5 per cent. It spiked in 2003-06, coming in at 74.8 per cent. In 2011, it’s 57.9 per cent.

But Ghana’s economy is on the rise. National and per capita GDP have been steadily increasing in recent years, and the World Bank forecasts Ghana’s economy as the fastest growing in sub-Saharan Africa.

“When the country’s economy improves,” said Blay, “I think there is a future for companies to advertise in the paper, for entertainers to read the paper, for businessmen to know what’s going on, for people to read the cartoons and love it.”

In the interim, media houses, especially practitioners, are in charge of their own destinies.

“I want the media practitioners to be neutral,” said Gyan.
The Politics of Ghanaian News Media 2
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri

This is the second in a two-part series DAILY GUIDE is publishing to explore ethics, objectivity and politics in Ghanaian news media. Last week’s entry focused on owners and politicians. This week, we talk to practitioners.


Ghanaians wake up every morning to new information on politics, health, environment, sports, entertainment and general news, either from the radio, television or newspaper.
However, political news takes the lead in most headlines and front pages. It is also among the top issues debated and talked about in offices and departments. Readers and listeners anticipate political news everyday.
Political reporters therefore go the extra mile to bring readers and listeners information that will interest them. But many are prone to the influence of their media houses, media owners, politicians and their own ideologies.


The politics of political writing
There’s a general stance that political news is full of biases and sensationalism, even though it gives diverse views and sides to partisan issues, mainly from a partisan perspective.
“It is not wrong for our media to do political reporting, or even for any media house to say, ‘We support this ideology’,” said Sulemana Braimah, deputy executive director of Media Foundation for West Africa. “But it’s about detailed analysis and professionalism.”


Braimah worked in print media for almost five years, before going back to school and taking a position with the foundation. He is involved in a number of media consultation projects, including training.
“Issues of objectivity, analysis, facts, professionalism and ethics is where for me journalism is lacking to a greater extent when it comes to political writing,” said Braimah.
Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, a 61-year veteran journalist, is a coordinator with The Ghana Media Standards Improvement Project and chairperson of the Editor’s Forum, Ghana. She also highlights a lack of professionalism as the main reason for shabby political reporting.
“The word I always site is professionalism,” said Yeboah-Afari. “If you are doing your work in a professional way, then the opinion of another person should not matter to you.”
In her view, a journalist must write his or her report as factually as possible. That means giving the right background so that all sides have equal say.
“You are respecting everybody’s position or opinion,” she added.
Bright Blewu, General Secretary of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), said that papers tend to tell the truth piecemeal and are selective in the news they publish.
“We have the objective ones in the middle who will say both sides of a story,” he said. “For me, that’s real journalism, because the other side is propaganda.”
Blewu said political coverage is too charged. He wants reporters to be more reflective, to acknowledge politicians as human beings and bring a degree of analysis to the mistakes they make.
“Sometimes, this happens because we have too many media houses that are not in the middle,” he said. “They are aligned with political parties; therefore, they flavour reports with too much of politics just to get the temperature heated.”


Ownership and accountability
As temperatures rise ahead of the 2012 elections, owners of media houses may influence journalists to report in favour of a particular party.
“Journalists alone do not determine the media culture of a country,” said Blewu. “Our owners must know they have a contribution to make. They can believe in social democratic ideals, or liberal democracy, but at the end of the day, they must let the journalists do their work.”
However, some journalists are beholden to their management. They are aware of their owner’s political affiliation and tend to be cautious in their reportage.
“You are extra careful not to offend your media owner,” Ms Yeboah-Afari elaborated. “It takes our colleagues with courage to express their opinion which is contrary to what the owner expects.”
At the same time, said Braimah, ownership influence is reducing, as up-and-coming media owners are business people, not journalists.
“The few political owners are also retiring into the background,” he added.
The editors of the 1960s, many of which were in charge of influential newspapers, have more recently allowed younger reporters and editors to take over.
However, there are still publishers who act as editors. To a large extent, they determine what comes out in the newspapers.
“I think somehow our journalists have been influenced by the attitudes of their senior colleagues in the newsroom,” said Braimah.
Career-minded journalists wind up catering to the culture of front page stories, which are predominantly political. This trend has cut across the Ghanaian media landscape with few exceptions.
“Your first responsibility as a journalist is to the people, regardless of the political persuasion,” said Blewu. “The journalist is like a referee in a football match. You might have sympathies toward one team, but it doesn’t mean you favour one.

“That’s the beauty of democracy, if the people can get all the sides of the story and then make informed judgment about.”

Professional intervention
The Ghana Journalists Association Code of Ethics is composed of 17 articles that set ethical and professional guidelines for journalists. They cover everything from dealing with grief stricken sources to plagiarism. In particular, Article 17 warns against sensationalism, while Article 1, subsection 2, reinforces the public’s right to unbiased information.
“We as journalists must strain to get above this problem of getting tied up in politics when reporting political news because we sympathize with one political party,” said Blewu. “We need to fly above it, not below the clouds.”
He said people must get into journalism because they want to make society better.
“You get into it because you stand for the truth. You must not compromise on the truth. If you don’t have a little bit of that passion, then I think journalism is not the place for you, as the profession is a dangerous weapon to those who mishandle it.”
The notion of the media as a weapon is not lost on Braimah.
“The same media that we think helped us get out of dictatorship and brought us into our democracy can also serve as a powerful tool that can pull our democracy backwards in terms of what they do,” he said.
Blewu advocates for a broadcasting law.
“I think that, as a country, we must have policies, whether written or unwritten,” he said. “For instance, a broadcasting law. We need a broadcasting law.”
He acknowledged the positive effect of liberalized media, but warned that there must be a set of rules to manage the ethics of its production.
He reminded news-consumers of their power. They can determine which media houses survive based on what they choose to read, watch and listen to.
“The Media Commission should also investigate thoroughly into media misconduct,” he said. “If a media house does the wrong thing, look at the issue and say they have done the wrong thing.”
He further urged journalists to be cautious about sweeping statements, which can be malicious. Statements in the media, he continued, must be validated, lest they lead to unnecessary rancour.
“Our journalist training institutions are not doing the best in terms of training,” said Braimah. “It’s important for our institutions to be practically oriented. Before you come out, there’s a project that says you are to produce a three- or four-part feature on an issue – and you’re getting graded on that.”
Braimah also called on news editors to resolve that not everything passes as news. Credible media is selective.
“We want editors who say, ‘We are building a newspaper or radio station, and not everything will pass.’”
Furthermore, he called on journalists to analyse and research a topic before writing the story.
Sources, too, often lack depth. Reporters regularly go for sources that are most accessible, leaving marginalized voices out of their coverage.
The Ghana Media Standards Improvement Project runs a number of outreach programmes to improve on these faults, said Yeboah-Afari. They operate in 16 media houses across Ghana, six of which are newspapers, while the rest are radio stations.
“First of all,” she said, “when they get there they have an introduction and assess the challenges that a particular media house faces, and then they agree together with the editor or the station manager and the staff to agree on the way forward through training and seminars.
“We work with colleagues to make a more professional product.”


Does the public trust the media?
According to Blewu, Ghanaians remembers the years leading up to the 1992 constitution. They prefer a free press.
“The extent to which it’s free can be debated,” he said, “but take the free media away and you scuffle people of the oxygen that they need to live.”
Braimah said there’s no option for now.
“You have to listen to the radio,” he said, “and radio is what we have. I believe right now in Ghana, the media is just giving people what they think they want – not what they need for development.”
For her part, Yeboah-Afari said the public is suspicious of news that challenges popular opinion.
“Should the public be leading the media,” she asked, “or should the media be leading the public?”