Perusing a newspaper stand in Accra, Ghana
If you open a newspaper on a sweltering morning in Ghana’s bustling capital, you will find scintillating tales of political intrigue, graphic photos of lives gruesomely cut short, scathing editorials trashing the governing party, the opposition and everything in between. Some mornings, you might even find naked women spread-eagle on a centerfold with their most-nether regions blacked out with the words “Machine Gun.”
The radio is no different, jam-packed with talk shows criticizing all aspects of society, listener call-in programs for the public to air their views, documentaries on contentious issues such as homosexuality and arranged marriages.
Ghana, a West African nation of roughly 23 million people, enjoys one of the highest rates of press freedom of any African nation.
Reporters without Borders, an organization of international media monitors, ranked Ghana first in press freedom in all of Africa in its 2009 press freedom index, and 27th worldwide, well ahead of countries such as Spain (44th), Italy (49th) and France (43rd). Canada came in at 19th in the same rankings.
So it came as something of a surprise when criminal charges were laid against a prominent radio personality after he refused to divulge confidential sources to police.
Ato Kwamena Dadzie is the acting news editor at JoyFM, an Accra-based private radio station, as well as Journalists for Human Rights’ former country director in Ghana.
Earlier this month, Dadzie aired a story on JoyFM that said the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association had withdrawn a petition to parliament against a massive housing deal with a Korean company after some members were threatened with death or the abrogation of government contracts.
The government denied the story, calling it a “wild and deliberately concocted report cloaked in investigative pretentions, sought to cause fear and anxiety amongst the business community and the general citizenry.”
Information Minister John Tia demanded the station substantiate its claims immediately, or retract the story and issue apologies to the president and government.
In the same figurative breath, the government announced it had directed security agencies to investigate the claims that death threats had been made.
When Dadzie was called in by investigators, they asked him to name his sources in order to offer protection to those who had allegedly been threatened. He refused and, reportedly, was later charged with “publication of false news with intent to cause fear and alarm,” a crime that carries a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment.
Dadzie was non-plussed by the situation, writing on his blog, “I am hoping for the best but I’m very prepared for the worst.”
Columnist Ben Otoo, who argues that Dadzie should cooperate with law enforcement, points out that no law exists in Ghana to protect journalists who refuse to reveal their sources of information. “Ato must, therefore, choose between violating a promise to a news source or lose the case in court. Some practices are ethical but not necessarily lawful.”
Indeed, this same debate regarding whether journalists are legally bound to reveal confidential sources for reasons of security exists in North America–The New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent three months in jail for refusing to reveal a source.
In Ghana’s vibrant, contentious media culture, it’s not an anomaly for authorities and journalists to have their tussles. And journalists, while fiercely competitive when chasing stories and fighting for readers or listeners, tend to stick together when one gets the stick from authorities, whether it be courts, politicians or police.
Newspapers and radio stations across the country have followed Dadzie’s story closely and myriad editorials decry what is seen as an affront to press freedom. Likewise, organizations that advocate for democracy, rights and freedom of the press have come out in full force in support of Dadzie.
While there is strong support–and insistence–for a free press in Ghana, others argue that the country’s relatively newfound freedom has led to a degradation of the trade, giving way to stories like that of a couple weeks ago, when the front pages were chock full of politicians comparing one another to chimps and frogs.
Otoo also wrote this week, “We in Ghana think that the so-called freedom of the press means that journalists can write whatever they like and get away with it, even if their publications are irresponsible.”
In Ghana’s politically charged culture, there’s no doubt millions will be tuning in to find out what happens to JoyFM’s most irreverent journalist while in the newsrooms and information ministries of the country, the push and shove will continue. And that in itself is a sign of a fresh, free press and its contribution to democracy.
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Jess – this piece is wonderful. It makes us understand that though Ghana enjoys extreme freedom of the press, there are difficulties in reconciling some ethics of the free press and certain issues relating to national security. It is about time the government and the media sat down to find lasting solution to this infamous war of ethics.