Media ownership by politicians dangerous

Prof Karikari (Middle) launching the document. With him are Kofi Asamoah (left), Ransford Tetteh (3rd left), Kofi Bonney (Right).

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday February 11, 2011.
Professor Kwame Karikari, Executive Director of Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) says the rate at which politicians are acquiring the rights to own media houses is dangerous and must be checked.

“In Ghana currently, almost every media outlet is owned by a politician. This is dangerous because it is this situation that has plunged the Ivory Coast into chaos. The politicians over there have acquired media rights and are using journalists, who should know better, to destroy themselves.”

Prof. Karikari was speaking in Accra yesterday at the launch of a media study report on the wages and working conditions of media workers in the country.

The research was conducted by Labour Research and Policy Institute of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) to highlight the unacceptable working conditions of journalists in the country.

Prof. Karikari said high ranking politicians in the country are exploiting the unemployment situation to engage all sorts of people majority of whom are not well educated, and all they push them to do is to attack their opponents whilst protecting their parochial interests.

He said politicians owning media outlets are no news; however the dimension it is taking currently should be a source of concern for everybody saying “the 2008 elections showed clearly how the media can be misused when politicians are running them.”

“The current situation is unacceptable. I would suggest that the authorities take a second look at our media laws and if possible bar politicians from owning media houses.”

Prof. Karikari said the media is politicizing every national issue leading to undue polarization in the country saying “every issue has been reduced to NDC/NPP yet the people are bigger than these parties.”

“Even if they want to talk about plantains, the media will bring NDC and NPP activists to discuss the issue instead of the right person which is the market woman.”

He said the time has come for media owners to employ and motivate journalists “with dignity, self confidence and self respect to uplift the professionalism that we are all seeking to bring into our work.”

The Professor said: “the media industry is expanding very fast. There is unprecedented competition. It is therefore prudent for media owners to employ qualified journalists who can enhance sales, prestige and all the other things that can happen to a media house.”

Journalists who collect money and other incentives before publishing stories lower their self esteem and output thereby further lowering the standards of journalism saying “sometimes when you pick certain newspapers you can see clearly that somebody is holding the editor’s pen”

Ransford Tetteh, President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) said upholding the ethics of the profession should be a responsibility of every journalist, but regretted that many of the members had refused to take advantage of the numerous training programmes to upgrade themselves.

He said the effort to unionize the GJA to enable journalists to bargain for improved working conditions is on course but said “we are facing challenges from some media owners who are not happy about our decision to turn the GJA into a union.”

Mr. Tetteh “you cannot improve standards when people are not paid well. Some media owners issue out identity cards to their staff and send them on the streets without salaries and in the process these journalists do all sorts of things to survive to the detriment of professional standards.”

“We are always seen fighting on behalf of others yet we cannot take good care of ourselves. The way we enter into the profession is also a huge impediment in the effort to uplift standards.”

He commended the TUC for their effort to ensure that journalists get decent working conditions and promised that the GJA would work hard to protect the interests of journalists.

Kofi Asamoah, General Secretary of TUC bemoaned the high number of journalists who are engaged in poor working conditions saying “most employment relations are not covered by the dictates of labour laws”.

He urged the GJA to facilitate the plans to turn the association into trades union to enable them to get the best for members.

Kofi Bonney, Chairman of TUC who moderated the launching said the role of the media in the country’s democratic engagements should never be taken for granted.