Media urged to focus on dev issues

10/09/09

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru

SPEAKERS at a political parties/media seminar in Accra have criticised journalists and politicians for using divisive, acrimonious, untrue and defamatory language, which threaten peace and stability in the country.
They, therefore, urged the media to shift their focus to serious development issues, such as the effects of climatic change on the country’s future, the health implications of poor waste management, the falling standard of education, the alarming poverty levels and omissions and commissions in governance.
They further asked politicians to be cautious in their utterances.
The President of the African University College of Communications, Mr Kojo Yankah; a former member of the Council of State, Mrs Gifty Afenyi-Dadzie; the General Manager, Newspapers, Graphic Communications Group Limited, Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh; and a senior fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Brigadier-General Francis Agyemfra, made the appeal in Accra yesterday at the seminar, organised by the IEA.
The Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Kwabena Adjei; the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Ohene Ntow; the Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan, and the Chairman of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Mr Ladi Nylander, in their separate contributions also admitted infringements of the code on the part of politicians and journalists.
The seminar was to assess whether or not journalists and politicians have complied with the terms of the Political Parties Code of Conduct of 2008, which they all assented to. At the end of the presentations and contributions, both the media practitioners and politicians concluded that they had gone contrary to the terms of the Political Parties Code of Conduct before, during and after the election.
Mr Yankah, who spoke on “An Accountable Media and Politician”, said some of the reports in the print and electronic media were ill-informed, unprofessional and without any background information, while some politicians were dictatorial, arrogant and intolerant of divergent opinions.
He cited poor communication skills on the part of both media practitioners and politicians as the main cause of the use of divisive and inflammatory language by journalists and politicians.
He, however, ruled out any form of strict regulation of the work of the media.
“The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Code of Ethics cannot be isolated from a general course of study and body of knowledge called journalism. It is not code of ethics that makes a professional. A doctor is not a doctor because he knows the Hippocratic Oath. A Christian is not a Christian because he knows the Apostolic Creed,” he stressed.
Mr Yankah said both politicians and journalists were leaders, and indicated that despite their differences in ideology and party identification, “the media person and the politician should share common concerns for the public”.
He said while some media personnel were contributing to the country’s democratisation, others were highlighting attitudes that portrayed them as irresponsible and unaccountable.
Mr Yankah urged the media to give more voice to the marginalised in society, play their watchdog role and serve as channels for the expression of varied views and opinions.
He said polarisation of society through foul and insulting communication on party lines should be considered a subversion of the country’s ethos and asked journalists to refrain from attributing personal statements of politicians to their parties.
Mr Yankah proposed the adoption of a timetable during which all political activities must start and end, and recommended that six weeks after elections, all political party symbols should be taken off the streets.
Besides, he said, the media should have a timetable during the six months to introduce political party campaigns, and suggested that more energy and space should be given to providing information about the entire process from registration to accepting the results.
Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh, who gave an overview of the Political Parties Code of Conduct, gave instances where media reports and utterances of politicians were inflammatory.
For instance, he said, some of the reports carried on the airwaves prompted supporters of the NDC to besiege the offices of the Electoral Commission (EC) during the 2008 election, on suspicion that it was rigging the election results.
He said the reports which said that dead bodies of NPP agents had been discovered in the Volta Region “did not meet the Code of Ethics of either the GJA or political parties” and stressed that “such aberrations do nobody good”.
On the political front, Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh said some of the messages in the advertisements placed by political parties were “acrimonious, untrue, divisive and dastardly”.
Brigadier-General Agyemfra urged journalists and politicians to try to abide by the Political Parties Code of Conduct in their utterances, in order to maintain the prevailing peace and stability in the country.
Dr Kwabena Adjei said responsible utterances, which he described as political morality, must come from within, and challenged the media to be objective and non-partisan.
Nana Ohene Ntow asked both journalists and politicians to have good faith in and commitment to the terms of the Political Parties Code of Conduct, and urged the media to reflect the various shades of views in their reportage.
Alhaji Ramadan stressed the need for politicians to avoid ambiguity in their statements in order not to give room for misinterpretation by the media.
Mr Nylander urged the media to exercise restraint and not to go overboard in pursuit of selling their newspapers.
Mrs Afenyi-Dadzie, who chaired the function, charged journalists and politicians to be diligent in respecting the Political Parties Code of Conduct to ensure accountability to maintain their credibility.