Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
Dr. Charles Yves Wereko-Brobby
By William Yaw
Owusu
Accra, Thursday September 27, 2012.
Firebrand Dr. Charles Yves
Wereko-Brobby aka Tarzan has described Ghana’s media landscape as a “jungle”
where gatekeepers are turning into “poachers” and says their actions are derailing
the democratic gains made so far.
He
said journalists have become “uncontrollable and arrogant” and accused them of
becoming “collaborators” of the rot in the system.
Dr.
Wereko-Brobby, a former Chief Executive of Volta River Authority (VRA) was
speaking at the 3rd Freedom Power Lecture 2012, organised by the Center for Freedom and Accuracy (CFA) under the theme
“Assessing Ghana’s Democracy: What’s Right, What’s Wrong and the Future”
in Accra yesterday.
He
explained, “They are uncontrollable and arrogant because the media believes its
freedoms are unfettered and without bounds and collaborators because its
priorities are increasingly dictated by the monetary inducements from the
unseen puppetry of the ruling political elite and the blackmail of exposure by
supposedly erring citizens or public officials.”
Speaking on the topic “Taking Liberties with our
Freedoms”, Dr. Wereko-Brobby - who was in charge of the secretariat that
supervised Ghana’s 50th Independence Anniversary in 2007 - also
described the country’s media as a “jungle.”
“It is ironical that the two principal contestants
for the Presidency of Ghana in this year’s general elections have both fallen
victim to the ‘unreasonable’ and ‘untenable’ insistence
by Ghana’s media that their freedoms are unfettered and absolute and cannot be subjugated and limited by the
equally legitimate rights and freedoms of their fellow citizens.”
He noted that events in the past since the
inception of the 1992 Republican Constitution have shown that players in the
media are not prepared to be accountable to the people and any attempt to
introduce reforms have been “blocked” or “fought tooth and nail” by the
players.
He said the situation had left the National Media Commission
(NMC) “to remain the toothless bulldog that the framers of the constitution
intended and successive elected governments have maintained.”
Dr. Wereko-Brobby said currently “Ghana’s media
has travelled into the jungle and quagmire of: no law to regulate the broadcasting
industry; no limits to how far FM stations can transmit; no rules as to what
and when to put on as content; no control of language, accuracy or legality of
what goes out; no enforcement of constitutional rights to equal weight of
accusation & rejoinder; no control on bad language or offensive behaviour
and no enforcement of people’s rights by a seemingly cowed and blackmailed
judiciary.”
He said that is giving cause for concern and there
was the need to address excesses in the media if the country’s democratic
future is to be guaranteed.
“The political class do not ever need to pass
oppressive and draconian laws to trample on the rights and the freedoms of the
people as long as they can get a suppliant press to assist them in dressing the
denials in the clothes of strengthening democracy and grassroots participation,”
he said.
“The examples of the travails of Joy FM in the
former and Oman FM in the latter should
serve as a timely warning to Ghana’s media that coming events cast their own shadows , and that unless the
media takes urgent steps to get out of the same bed with the political class
and return to its noble role as the people’s watchman.”
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