THERE appears to be a consensus on the critical role of the media in any democratic process. True democracy, it is generally agreed, cannot endure where the people are denied the right to participate in the decision-making process.
It is also argued that if democracy is a government by the people, then the electorate or, at least, majority of them, must dictate the way they want to be governed.
Democratic governance is also said to be about choices or alternatives, hence the need for the free flow of information to all segments of society so that they can make informed choices.
Indeed, it is against this background that freedom of speech is guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution, thereby preventing a restriction on free flow of information and a criminalisation of free speech.
Since 1992, successive governments have taken steps to expand the frontiers of free speech by initiating some pieces of legislation. It is heart-warming that despite the challenges, Ghana has become a beacon for the rest of the continent, having being ranked the best on the continent by Reporters Without Frontiers.
However, certain negative practices by media practitioners tend to derail the gains chalked up by the media on the continent.
The DAILY GRAPHIC daresays that the threat to media freedom may be from some media practitioners who breach the ethical standards with impunity forgetting that the independence and freedom guaranteed by the constitution is not absolute.
It is important to remind ourselves that the same constitution says explicitly that the freedoms it guarantees are subject to the laws that are reasonably required in the interest of national security, public order, public morality and for the purpose of protecting the reputations, rights and freedoms of other persons.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, urges all practitioners to exercise the freedom guaranteed by the constitution with responsibility so that they can have the moral courage to question or hold public office holders accountable for their actions.
It is for this reason that we salute the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) for choosing the theme: “Unethical Journalism and Corruption in the Media: A Danger to Democracy” for its 15th Awards Night to offer the platform to interrogate the threats to media freedom.
In recent times, a section of the public has expressed outrage about the seeming media tyranny, where journalists run down personalities, including our President, without just cause.
It is difficult to assign reasons for the blatant disregard for the norms of responsible journalism except to conjecture that such characters can only be motivated by gutter journalism or pay cheque journalism.
These are the characters that the Vice-President, Mr John Mahama, spoke about at the awards night on Saturday when he charged the GJA “to purge its ranks of charlatans and non-professionals”.
Mr Mahama said although the association had the responsibility to regulate the media, that had not been possible as in other professions because its ethics was not legally binding on members.
That, he stressed, had resulted in the witnessing of mercenary journalism while others were paid to run down other people for parochial gains.
The DAILY GRAPHIC agrees totally that these are very serious concerns and the ball is clearly in the court of all true professionals in the media to muster courage and nip the canker in the bud if journalists must regain their respectability.
The third President of the United States, Mr Thomas Jefferson, once said: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter”.
Need we add anything more?
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