Media building is nation building

By Mawutodzi K. Abissath

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2001. NO. 148353 PRICE: ¢1,500

BECAUSE the 21st century is an information and knowledge age, any government anywhere on the face of the earth that attempts to suppress, oppress or gag the media does so at its own peril.

On Thursday, September 13, 2001, the Daily Graphic carried a lead story in its centre spread headlined "Government will NOT GAG MEDIA". The statement was attributed to Hon. Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry, who was reported to have handed over the former Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC) Club House opposite the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) in Accra to the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) for its new Press Centre.

The Independent issue of that same day (13/9/2001) also reported the presentation on its front page under the heading, "Kufuor fulfils promise to Press". In the story, the President of the West African Journalists Association (WAJA), Mr Kabral Blay-Amihere, who was said to have witnessed the ceremony, was reported to have recalled that about 40 years ago, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah donated the premises of the GIJ to the GJA, which was later taken over by a military government in 1966.

What prompted this author to write this article was that this kind gesture by the government toward the Ghana Journalists Association has generated some sort of anxiety and apprehension among a cross-section of the public. Some people, including some media practitioners themselves, were of the view that by donating this state property to GJA for its headquarters, the government was pampering journalists.

That this kind of "love affair" between the government and the media will lead Journalists compromising on their duties when it comes to criticising the government. Of course, people who hold this view are the masters of their own opinions. But they need to be reassured that their apprehension is misplaced. They may only be developing the symptoms of a disease called the FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN. Government has a responsibility to create a suitable socio-economic and political atmosphere for the media to function effectively and efficiently.

Such people must be politely reminded that it was not for nothing that the media were acknowledged as the Fourth Estate of the Realm. Thus, 'if the state' has the responsibility to provide office accommodation for the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary, why not the media so that together they can build the nation?

Ghana's 1992 Constitution was clear on the role of the media. Article 162 section (5) stipulates that "All agencies of the mass media shall, at all times, be free to uphold the principles, provisions and objectives of this Constitution, and shall uphold responsibility and accountability of the government to the people of Ghana". I underlined "responsibility and accountability of the government to the people of Ghana" to prove a point that whether government allocates the Bank of Ghana building or even the Castle to the GJA, media men and women will play their watchdog role to check and' crosscheck-government on behalf of the people who put the government in office. The Sahara saga is a typical example.

Furthermore, it must be pointed out that Ghanaian journalists cannot claim to be saints or pretend to have attained perfection within the relatively short span of constitutional democratic practice in the country. However, most of them have long passed the epoch of professional mediocrity, docility and sycophancy. In other words, most journalists are guided by the ethics of the profession and their own conscience in the discharge of their duties. But there are some who are always hitting below the belt, anyway.

In May, 1998, on the occasion of that year's World Press Freedom Day, the United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Kofi Annan, was reported on Radio France Internationale (RFI) to have called on world journalists to practice what he termed "Preventive Journalism".

According to the UN Secretary-General, journalists were identified as the best professionals in the world today "who can use their profession to promote world peace". He cited the Rwanda genocide which claimed over 500,000 souls which could have been prevented through preventive journalism, he observed.

A week after Mr Annan had elevated the journalism profession to that first class and highest esteem as far as service to humanity was concerned, another Secretary-General, this time of the International Catholic Union of the Press (UCIP), based in Geneva, Switzerland, Mr Joseph Chittilappilly, came to Ghana for a refresher training course for young journalists of the Catholic Church in the country.

I recall vividly that Professor George Hagan, the CPP presidential candidate, then Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Dr Bona Koomson of the School of Communication Studies, University of Ghana, His High Holiness, Rt Rev. Dominic Andoh, Archbishop of Accra, and H. E. Ghana's Ambassador designate to Sierra Leone, Mr Kabral Blay, Amihere, were among the resource persons who addressed that seminar which took place at the Ghana Registered Nurses Association Hostel, here in Accra.

During the course, the DCIP Secretary-General revealed that there was a new media philosophy evolving. The philosophy or theory or new paradigm was that the world was beginning to recognise journalists (the press) as belonging to the FIRST ESTATE OF THE REALM (caption mine).

 "The belief is that the journalism profession now goes beyond its traditional function of informing, educating and entertaining people. Rather, journalists are the real professionals who teleguide the minds of policy makers in the correct manner of governing human beings" he explained. In other words, world leaders now depend largely on the media in order to adopt decisions that will impact positively on the people they are ruling.

Therefore, any government that toys with or antagonises the media may be digging its own grave. It is better to court and co-operate with the media than to criminalise them. Various past regimes in this country at one time or the other have donated some movable and non-movable properties to various professional bodies. For instance, the NDC government once presented a Niva vehicle to GJA. It also donated the former building of the Passport Office near the Independence Square to the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), and others. But the media never treated the NDC government with kid’s gloves at all.

The donation of the former GNTC Club House to GJA, therefore, will hardly influence the media to pour white powder on the heads of officials of the ruling government who may go wrong. The Christian Bible made it clear that if you knock, you shall be opened and if you ask, you shall be given. The GJA has requested for office accommodation and it has been granted. The gesture is a wise media-government relations of strategy the NPP government has adopted which any future government must photocopy.

The lesson here is that if the government helps the media to lay a solid foundation, the media will assist the government to lay a formidable foundation, too, and together they will build the nation upon a rock of unity peace, tolerance, harmony and understanding for the prosperity of citizens.

NB: This article was first published by the Daily Graphic in 2001. abissath@gmail.com