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| Joseph Ziem, Freelance Journalist |
"Ziem..!!!
You look so-o-o-o-o good. Life is good for you-o-oh. At least, those of you
who’re journalists don’t have any problem. I saw you the other time on
television when I was watching news. You were sitting with “BIG MEN” including
the Regional Minister, Vice President and some other dignitaries in a workshop."
Comments like the one above from
some friends I bumped into recently, made me feel like I was indirectly mocked
at or flattered. Seriously speaking, as much as I tried to give them an honest
response for the songs of praises and worship they sang for me, they simply brushed
it off and told me to stop giving them flimsy excuses.
And they continued: “You think we don’t know that you’re
enjoying eh? How can a whole journalist too complain of ‘holes’ in his pockets?
Are you a teacher?” they asked amidst
laughter. They wished they were journalists, I said to myself. But apart from
the fame and meeting important personalities in one-on-one interviews, what
else do journalists gain from the profession? Nothing, I said to myself as my
silence to their flattery behaviour forced them to pause laughing for a while.
The fact that you meet a journalist looking
good (nicely dressed) doesn’t mean that he/she earns a gargantuan amount of
salary every month. That has been my response to friends whenever and wherever we
meet and they begin to talk about working conditions and other matters of life.
Journalists by nature of their profession must be properly dressed, I told
them, adding that, they (teachers) are even fortunate that they earn good monthly
salaries and probably with some allowances, yet complain as if they were worse
off than a public toilet keeper. Quite apart from that, they’re sure of regular
salary increase anytime there is some fuel price increase. And how about
journalists, most of whom at times can’t even bargain for an increase in salary;
simply because they are afraid their employers might sack them and employ
someone they (employers) think they can pay whether he/she is qualified or not?
I asked and the response was like the stillness in the cemetery at midnight.
I took my time just to educate these
friends on the bad conditions of service if not worse, which pertains in the
inky profession—a profession that is so much adored and respected by many
people worldwide most especially at places where free speech is uncommon or
where there are many entities and individuals seeking to do propaganda.
I cautioned them solemnly against ever
compelling their children to become journalists in the future unless it’s their
wish and desire. I continued by saying that, the only benefit that I, like many
journalists, derive from the profession and which keeps me going, is the
respect and praises people like you (referring to them) shower on me anytime you
see me and nothing else.
Sounding like a Roman Catholic priest
delivering a homily at a Sunday mass, I admonished them that the journalism
profession was a calling to serve God and humanity, and not a place to make
money or amass wealth. Indeed, journalists are the most poorly paid the world
over except for those working in state-owned media organisations and other few private
media companies which are richer and can afford to pay their staff well. Even
pastors are better than journalists in the sense that, they are paid well by
their congregation to stay and do the work of God, although they say their work
is a calling, I added. To survive in journalism, one must fall in love with the
profession, be passionate about it and be willing to sacrifice his/her life just
for the truth to prevail and the wrongdoings in society to stop. If you’re
lucky, you may be remembered as a martyr.
If you (referring to my friends)
don’t want to curse your child for not being able to send you money to buy porridge
and take care of other needs in your old age because you think he/she is a
journalist, then I would advise that you rather persuade him or her to work in
the bank, oil and gas company, telecommunications company, CEPS, Parliament, etc,
because these are the places where one can earn so much.
Journalism is so much adored and
respected by many because everyone looks up to practitioners to speak for them
in times of difficulties, but hardly do they speak for themselves as if to
suggest that they don’t even have problems at all. In fact, journalists have
serious bleeding problems ranging from pitiable conditions of service which
include very lean salaries, interference in their job by employers and persons
or groups linked to the media houses, lack of logistics to function well, lack
of training for them to upgrade their skills and lack of security among others.
For me, salary is the most serious issue that must be addressed. Finally, I
capped the conversation with my friends with a quote: "The LORD looked at my work
and was very glad. He then looked at my salary; He bowed his head, turned away
and wept." This is
because the salary of journalists is nothing to write home about, thus drawing
the tears of the LORD which is a sign of pity for them.
Now back to the focus of this article: why I think owners of media houses should
be blamed for the falling media standards in Northern Ghana.
I have been living in Northern Ghana specifically
Tamale, for six years now. I have tasted rough times in-between good times as
journalist and as Joseph Ziem. I launched my journalism career in one of the
most vibrant and most-listened-to radio stations in Tamale in October 3, 2006. I
worked in various capacities as News Reporter, Production Assistant, Deputy
News Editor, and finally left in 2010 as News Editor. Thanks to Mr. Edmond
Gyebi of The Chronicle Newspaper and TV Africa, who groomed me to the extent
that, I write almost like him. I can vouch that he’s among the top five best
journalists in the Northern Region currently. Please, that’s my opinion and no
one can take it from me.
Between 2006 and 2010 that I worked in the radio
industry, there were only five (5) Commercial Radio Stations operating in the
Tamale Metropolis including Fiila FM 89.3Mhz, Diamond FM 93.7Mhz, Radio Justice
98.5Mhz, North Star FM 92.1Mhz and the State-owned Savannah Radio 91.2Mhz.
Currently, there are eight (8) radio stations with the latest ones being
Bisharah Radio 97.7Mhz, Might FM 90.5 MHz and Zaa FM 99.3Mhz. There is also
Eagle Fm 90.5MHz in Walewale. In fact, I can confidently state that there are
two more due to be launched very soon, bringing the total number to ten (10).
Additionally, there are four Community Radio Stations namely; Saboba Radio,
Fusion FM, PAD FM and Simli Radio.
In the case of Upper West Region, there operates
state-owned Radio Upper West 90.1 MHz, Radio Progress 98.2Mhz, Hits FM 108.1
(closed down) as well as two Community Radio Stations which are Radio FREED
92.3 and Rasford FM 107.5. In the Upper East Region, they include state-owned URA
Radio 89.7 MHz, Style FM 99.3Mhz, Rock FM 103.7 (closed down) and A1 Radio
101.1 Mhz as well as three Community Radio Stations which include Word FM,
Nabina FM and Builsa Radio. Indeed, the radio industry in the North (Upper
West, Upper East and Northern Regions) is growing very fast considering the
fact that it’s a powerful medium to put information across for public discourse.
Falling
media standards, the cause and who should be liable
At a time that media analysts say that the radio industry
in Northern Ghana particularly Tamale is growing so fast, there is in fact a serious
shortfall of competent and experienced journalists as well as presenters, to entertain,
inform and educate the masses, most of whom are so ignorant about a lot of happenings
going on in the country. In other words, most of the presenters or journalists
working with these radio stations particularly the private ones, lack a deep
sense of knowledge and understanding of contemporary topical issues ranging
from basic economics to agric, education to gender, politics to governance, current
affairs to civic education and so on, which people need to be abreast of in
order to make informed decisions and choices for their lives.
It is true that one can become a journalist no
matter the person’s academic background. That is, it doesn’t matter whether the
person read agric, medicine, engineering, fashion, pure science, music or whatever
at the university, college or high school. But, I think above all these, he/she
must be someone who can read, write or speak very good and comprehensible grammar.
Besides, he/she must be the type that learns very fast in terms of acquiring
knowledge in workshops and seminars as well as making very good use of the knowledge
acquired.
Sadly, most of the journalists and presenters in some
of these stations write and speak very bad grammar and they know next to nothing
in the topics they table for discussion. It’s not their fault. There are no
experienced producers or programme directors in most of these stations to
ensure that quality programmes are delivered on air. This is because, owners of
some of these stations have over the years relied on cheap labour by way of
recruiting staff to man the news and programmes departments, hence the poor
output on air to a society where majority of its population is not so well
educated.
Majority of the presenters, apart from being
unprofessional or untrained, also invite panelists with little or no knowledge
about topics tabled for discussion. The presenters and their panelists
sometimes end up ‘poisoning’ the minds of their listeners, which trigger
unhealthy reactions from the public, especially during phone-ins. Managements
of most of these stations have over the years recruited unskilled and
inexperienced presenters and journalists to work for them, whereas the few
qualified and experienced ones they had, also left them due to poor
remuneration and frosty working relationships resulting from disrespect and
interference from the former.
Besides,
most of the owners of these media houses don’t see it as a necessity to
organise professional development workshops for their staff and also pay them
pittance which cannot help most of them to continue their education or seek
knowledge improvement in institutions that provide such expertise. My
interaction with some new and former staff of the radio stations in Tamale,
Bolgatanga and Wa revealed, that most of them are paid between the range of GH¢30.00
and GH¢200.00 a month, when in actual fact, owners of these stations particularly
those in Tamale, could pay them between GH¢400.00 and GH¢600.00 a month.
In
fact, even most of the staff of these stations don’t have social security and
are on what is best called monthly allowance and not salary. Some of them told
this writer that, salary increase is not based on merit or competence and
experience, but only when the owner of the station likes your face or thinks
that you sympathise with the political party that he/she belongs. Can you
imagine what someone would be taking after retirement if he/she is or was
earning GH¢100.00 a month as salary? What about those not on salary but
allowance?
What needs to be done to stop the standards from falling?
First
of all, lest owners of these radio stations in the three cities particularly Tamale
hire the services of competent and experience journalists and presenters, and
pay them well to provide quality, educative and informative programmes, many
people like me would only to tune in to their stations when they link up with
their affiliate stations abroad and in the nation’s capital, Accra. As one
Senior Journalist and Managing Editor of the Al hajj Newspaper Alhaji Iddrisu Bature
told The Africawatch in an interview in
February 2012,: “Journalists are the cheapest and easiest people to be bribed in Ghana.
That is a fact”. So the question is, how do you expect a journalist
earning GH¢40.00 or GH¢60.00 as salary or allowance to refuse a bribe of lest
say GH¢200.00? Whose fault is it? Your guess is as good as mine.
Secondly,
owners of these media companies must also stop interfering with the job of the
few qualified personnel they currently have at their disposal and allow them to
do their work as professionals. I will cite myself as an example. I had the
opportunity to work with a media organization where the C.E.O, for his own
parochial and selfish interest, would often accuse me of being a member of the
National Democratic Congress whenever I published a story that is critical of
the party he belongs to – New Patriotic Party. But, when I wrote similar
stories critical of the NDC, he never accused me of being NPP or belonging to
any of the other political parties. Why? So, I will advise that, C.E.Os or
managers, who are like the aforementioned, must endeavour NOT to dictate to the few experience journalists/presenters
they currently have otherwise, they will desert them and seek opportunities
elsewhere.
Thirdly,
owners of media houses must also make it a point to periodically organise training
workshops for their staff in order to enhance their professional and managerial
skills. Just as it’s good to periodically change the engine oil of your
automobile machine in order to make it more roadworthy or efficient, so is it good
to refresh the skills and knowledge of your staff so that their output would
impact well on the station’s target audience and bring more money to your
company. A good broadcaster is someone who has been trained over and over again
in most periods of his/her professional career and make good use of what he/she
has learned by making a positive impact in the lives of his/her listeners or
viewers.
Fourthly,
in places like Accra, Kumasi, Sunyani and other regions in the Southern part of
the country, experienced journalists and presenters are poached or signed on to
long term contracts by media owners who are serious-business-minded-people. Some
of the contracts come with free cars, free accommodation, scholarships and free
life/health insurance among others. Maybe, its time owners of radio stations in
the North also adopted such moves in order to improve upon their programming,
which will culminate into attracting many customers and listeners since they
are business entities and can only continue to exist when they make profit.
Last
but not least, commercial radio in contemporary times has gone beyond just
sending marketing executives out to source for customers to come and advertise
their products and services. In fact, I feel sorry for marketing managers of
radio stations in Tamale for instance, who boldly say without any shame, that
their outfits are not making money or profits. If there is no money, why are
many financial institutions and business entities opening up branches in the
city? Now radio marketing is about events and promotions, and not sitting comfortably
in your swiveling chair waiting for people to bring you announcements to read
on your networks. So, I will urge owners of radio stations who want to survive
in this business to begin to think innovatively otherwise they will soon fizzle
out.
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