Having finally reached Ghana last Saturday, I was eager to sink my teeth into the local media here in Accra. What I discovered is that the press here is as powerful, far-reaching and robust in Ghana as I expected based on my time working as reporter in Uganda last year. Journalism matters here, and people pay close attention to the day’s news.
Days after arriving, I visited one of our local media partners, Critical TV, an affiliate of TV Africa, which is one of the country’s most established television stations. Gabriel Quacoopome took me to the office where all the editing is done for Critical’s acclaimed Tuesday night program, International Assignment, hosted by Jefferson Sackey.
Gabriel Quacoopome, General Manager of Critical TV
As we got out of the car near the television station, Gabby turned to me and said, almost out of nowhere, “journalists are important here,” with a slight smirk that suggested he knew he held a certain power because of his line of work. Gabby explained that police officers, soldiers and politicians know better than to abuse their power in the presence of a journalist. If they do, their name will be on air or in the next day’s paper, almost unfailingly. What’s more journalists face little censorship here too. If a reporter is muzzled, neighbouring media houses will surely speak up against it.
“It’s that ‘freedom of speech’ thing,” Gabby replied when I asked him why journalists face fewer restriction here than in Liberia, for example. He said it so nonchalantly that at first, it sounded as if it wasn’t something to be taken seriously. But that wasn’t it. His tone suggested that it is something that is engrained in journalism here; freedom of speech is not some obscure right spoken about here, it’s expected and frequently exercised.
But for some, that freedom can be taken too far. “Journalists are now misusing the pen,” an executive at TV Africa told me. We were on the topic of a hot story that broke in Ghana last month. While being interviewed at a radio station, a teacher compared Ghana’s President Atta Mills to a chimpanzee. Within hours, he was arrested by police. One local paper, The Daily Guide (which also one of jhr’s media partners), spoke to a human rights lawyer who said journalists must exercise their right to free speech “with a sense of responsibility and decorum.”
The TV Africa exec I spoke to told me, “we’ve come along way” in Ghana, especially compared to some neighbourhing countries where the press is far from free. But he’s disappointed when media push boundaries to the point of losing credibility.
He added that Ghana’s media track record isn’t perfect when it comes to political biases. “Many media houses are very politically aligned,” he said. This influence might only be subtle in the editorial content, he said, but it can create an environment of self-censorship.
So we’re not quite there, but inching closer. And the more these issues are confronted in newsrooms across the country, the closer we’ll be to achieving a truly independent and professional press in Ghana.
