Yesterday was World Press Freedom Day, with the World Association of Newspapers releasing its now annual report, in which it this year stated that only a third of countries enjoy true press freedom, and only 18 percent of the world's people live in a country where freedom of the press is a reality. For the rest, military coups, oppressive governments and the outright murder of journalists are amongst the factors clamping down on freedom of speech.
Press freedoms are disappearing dramatically in Asia, the countries of the former Soviet Union, and Latin America, the New York City-based organisation said in its report Freedom of the Press 2007: A Global Survey of Media Independence. In Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe are amongst the many countries highlighted as amongst those countries where press freedom is less and less existent.
Ghana has managed a gradual shift up the league tables since the Freedom of the Press report was first published in 1991, meanwhile; and with the repeal of the criminal libel laws in 2001, journalists in Ghana now operate with a fairly free rein.
Yet even a brief survey of the media scene in our country reveals that it"s a far cry from the developed newspaper and multimedia outlets of our more developed friends - and that sometimes this newfound freedom is exercised with little responsibility, or little constructive purpose. Speculation after allegation after threat, the standard of journalism in Ghana often falls far short of the objectives set by the WAN, which recognises the link between a vibrant media and a strong democracy, and the ability of a quality media to improve the quality of political discourse.
Quantity rather than quality has so far been our mantra – with a proliferation of newspapers and radio channels, and a growing number of television channels, but a simultaneous proliferation of the mediocre and the inane.
Obstacles for the media in Ghana might no longer be coming from government or an institutional level – journalists no longer fear office raids, beatings, imprisonment – but there are other hurdles which prevent us from growing.
As things stand, the media in Ghana is not seen as a business but rather a political enterprise. Scores of politicians and their well-placed or well-endowed friends, owning and running media houses for the sake of a political campaign. Propaganda newssheets which print just a few hundred copies every day, with next to no chance of ever being a mouthpiece for some hapless hopeful to bankroll; 'new’ newspapers which ebb and flow from our newsstands, without making any tangible or lasting impact on the media market. Why are we not taking the business seriously? There is certainly a place for political players in the media industry – indeed, a major incentive for owning a newspaper or radio station is as a public mouthpiece – but without media knowledge and business sense, these media outlets will remain the ramshackle collection of poorly-produced reporting, and reproduced foreign content, we make do with today.
Ghanaian businessmen and entrepreneurs, should take up and take note of examples elsewhere. The fact that many media houses in Ghana struggle to stay afloat need not the be case: some of the richest men in the world have made their fortune from the media industry; Rupert Murdoch, the so-called media tycoon, owns newspapers from the Australia, China, the UK to the US, as well as the television and internet channels.
Some of these same Big Men tycoons have a political agenda to push, just as this newspaper has never shied away from its proud Danquah Busia tradition and beliefs. Our only qualifying criteria is this: that a political slant can and must be exercised through credible journalism in a quality newspaper if it is ever going to become a viable business venture, or gain any kind of intellectual respect. That business sense and media-know-how are fundamental –without these, the media scene in Ghana is destined to remain a pile of just-scraping-by publications and radio stations, rather than aspiring to the heights of more profitable enterprises elsewhere. Why should this be the case?
In Ghana, our media houses are often divided into pro-NPP and pro-NDC camps, although the plethora of Nkrumaist editors sometimes makes the exercise a little difficult. Indeed, The Statesman even indulged in just such a classification exercise in a somewhat tongue-in-cheek editorial last year ("‘Golden age’ of the press?" November 30, 2006).
But the media in Ghana should not and need not be an object of amusement. Compare our media scene to that in the UK, for example; The Telegraph is a right-wing, Conservative supporting newspaper, The Guardian has always been a left-leaning, Labour publication – but they are amongst the most respected newspapers in the world, run and managed as businesses.
Ghana’s media is currently experiencing the same brain drain we complain of in other sectors, with many of our best journalists leaving Ghanaian media houses for either work abroad, or work with international organisations here, such as the BBC. More choose not to go into journalism at all – it is hardly the way to become a millionaire.
Today, The Statesman calls upon businessmen in Ghana to look to this example, and invest in our media industry. Radio is the fastest-growing and most lucrative form of media in Ghana; and with our growing economy, there is money to be made in advertising.
We have freedom of the press in Ghana; now we – media practitioners, newspaper owners, and potential newspaper owners – must work out ways to improve this freedom, and enhance the quality of our output.
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