Politicians and media ownership

COMMENTARY ON CALL BY MEDIA EXPERTS TO BAR POLITICIANS FROM OWNING MEDIA ORGANISATIONS 

It is said that a person may fail many times but he or she cannot be called a failure until they start blaming others for their problems. It is for this reason that the media in Ghana can be said to have failed and disappointed the framers of the 1992 Constitution. Professor Kwame Karikari of the Media Foundation for West Africa recently stirred controversy when he suggested that politicians should be barred from owning media houses.  He cited examples from Rwanda, Kenya and Yugoslavia to support his position.  The staunch Media freedom advocate argued that when politicians own media houses, they use them to foment trouble. Most of the speakers at the NCCE’s Constitutional Week forum, where Professor Karikari made the suggestion, agreed with him. It is however unfortunate for the media to blame their lapses on politicians.

The MP for Assin North, Kennedy Agyapong, one of the few politicians who own media organizations, has dismissed the idea, saying the media organizations owned by politicians are insignificant. Indeed he could not have said it better. The argument against politicians owning media houses is neither here nor there. Article 162, (Clause 3) of the 1992 Constitution specifically stipulates that “there shall not be any impediments to the establishment of a private press or media.” It further states that “there shall be no law requiring any person to obtain a licence as a prerequisite to the establishment of a newspaper, journal or other media for mass communication or information.” 

This constitutional provision allows everybody, including politicians to own media organisations. One cannot see how the legislature or the executive will amend this provision to exclude themselves from establishing media houses. Furthermore, in Ghana we seem to eat, drink and breathe politics so it will be extremely difficult to find an operational definition for politicians. Civil and public servants will only claim to be politically neutral until an opportunity beckons. Even in the media landscape, we have hard going core politicians who go about in journalistic cloaks, while relishing the sacred title of so-called senior journalists. Simply put, almost every Ghanaian is a politician or has political leanings.  If the restriction is limited to parliamentarians and ministers of state it will not succeed either. That would not prevent them from registering their media houses in the names of relatives. Pursuing this agenda is like chasing a cat in the darkness. What media experts should rather do is to find ways of the sanitising the media landscape. 

The Ghanaian media has lost its agenda setting role, thanks to mediocrity, laziness and lack of innovation. Radio news bulletins have now been turned into interview sessions. This gives the politicians the opportunity to spew venom, which in turn serves as headlines for newspapers. Morning show hosts who pick up such stories in newspaper reviews in turn call the politicians to substantiate or deny whatever allegations have been made. Politicians now set the agenda for media organisations instead of the other way round. Instead of blaming the politicians, the media should reassert itself.  Article 162 (Clause 5) of the 1992 Constitution enjoins the Ghanaian media to endeavour to uphold the government accountable and responsible to the people. It is therefore not true to say that Ghanaians like politics and that anything short of politics is not newsworthy. At least there are examples to disprove this assertion.  For instance, anytime Anas Aremeyaw Anas comes out with his investigative stories, they draw political issues in the country. There are many human interest stories, when followed up will hold listeners and readers spellbound. 

Ghanaians certainly deserve better from the media than insults and divisive political sound bites played out as news. The only way to put the unprofessional and political media organisations out of business is to give listeners a better alternative. This is what media experts who are genuinely concerned about the filth in the media landscape should preoccupy themselves with. We cannot blame the politicians after we have sold our agenda setting birthright to them. 

BY: MANASSEH AZURE AWUNI, A JOURNALIST.