GROWING IRRESPONSIBLE JOURNALISM IN NORTHERN REGION

Editors and other Senior Journalists in the three Northern Regions have expressed their deepest disappointment at the growing irresponsible journalism practices among some practitioners in Ghana, and however attributed the situation to the failure of the National Media Commission (NMC) to secure better and deserving salaries for media practitioners.

The Editors, who blamed the Commission for not being proactive in previous years, said the NMC ought to have initiated a national policy to compel media owners and their partners to give better remunerations to their staff in order to discourage the Journalists from compromising on their professional code of ethics for monetary gains.

This came to light at a recent Media Forum organized in Tamale by the National Media Commission for Journalists in the three Northern Regions at the Mariam Hotel.

Even though the 1992 Constitution of Ghana speaks about the important role the media ought to play in ensuring the general wellbeing of Ghanaians (national unity, peace and development), yet nobody seems to be concerned about the welfare of Journalists in Ghana, hence majority of them using dubious means to survive.

Unlike in other African countries, more especially Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt where Journalists enjoy respectable salaries and are living in decent accommodations, most Ghanaian Journalists particularly those in the private media are still living below Two Dollars (US$2) a day.

Meanwhile, most of these Journalists are supposed to cater for the education of their children, pay house rent, utility bills and also feed their families.

What seems to make their case more pathetic or pitiable is the fact that Journalists are generally known to be the voice of the voiceless and the vulnerable, but they themselves are more vulnerable than those perceived as vulnerable in society.

The Ghanaian Journalists indeed are always good at advocating for salary increment for discontented workers of both private and public organizations. But the question now is: who speaks for the vulnerable Journalists?

It was discovered at the Forum that majority of Journalists working in the three Northern Regions as Correspondents to most Radio and Newspaper organizations in Accra and Kumasi are not given any fair treatment, which mostly forced some of them to forcibly demand monies from event organisors and District Chief Executives.

Conversely, the Chairman of the National Media Commission, Ambassador Kabral Blay Amihire who openly supported the concerns of the Journalists assured them of his plans to meeting all Directors and Managers of the media stations to discuss ways of improving the standard of journalism in Ghana and also sees to address the issue of poor condition of service.

The NMC Chairman also reiterated his resolve to establish a Media Development Fund (MDF) to assist media personnel and organizations to better manage their activities and sharpen their skills and again disclosed plans to establish Regional offices of the NMC throughout Ghana to ensure efficiency, monitoring and supervision.

Ambassador Kabral who has since his assumption of office been advocating for State funding of Private Media Houses in the country to enable them play their roles responsibly and responsively.

It is estimated that over 80 to 90% of the Private Media Stations in Ghana especially the electronic ones are extremely under resourced, and thus they frequently flout the basic rules of journalism by either failing to cross-check, follow up, ensure balancing or even employ competent personnel and pay them well.

Ambassador Kabral who warned the Ghanaian Journalists against compromising their professional standards and ethics, maintained that the NMC was committed to the promotion of responsible and accountable journalism in Ghana.

He vehemently blamed the media for becoming alarmists and unnecessarily meddling in partisan politics at the detriment of their core duty as agenda setters.

The NMC Chairman on the other hand, pleaded with Ghanaian Journalists to be the first to defend the media freedom enshrined in the Chapter 12 of the 1992 constitution.

For her part, Dr. Audrey Gadzekpo, a member of the commission urged the Ghanaian media to transcend on their limitations and persevere to become icons in their profession. She complained that topical issues underpinning the development of rural areas have been under-reported by the Ghanaian media and urged them to place premium on rural reporting.

Dr. Gadzekpo also underscored the need for the modern storage of journalism materials particularly articles since in her observation, most media houses in Ghana lacked storage facilities. The Vice Chairman of the Northern Regional branch of GJA, Yakubu Abdul Majeed cited the influx of “Quack Journalists” in the media landscape as one of the factors that had contributed to the denigration of the profession in many circles.

He noted that despite the challenges of inadequate facilities, lack of personnel and resources, media practitioners in the three regions had tremendously held public office holders accountable for their stewardship and had given voice to the voiceless in society.

Mr. Majeed however appealed to the NMC and GJA national to consider putting up a Press Centre in Tamale to serve the Northern Sector Journalists.