The Agyenim Boateng Code, Who Loses? (Part II)

The government of Ghana has bowed to pressure from both within and without the country, and in an embarrassing but face saving mode reversed its gagging order on the Joy FM family. Below is the concluding part of this two-part piece, which is even more relevant.

In appointments, particularly to the heart of policy direction, dissemination and image management, like the information ministry, you are minded of the fact that editors of news corps are wont to be more home and free flowing with their peers. So when you appoint a fresh college graduate or persons who don't have the needed clout to manage the information ministry, you will continue having the situation where even when the government inaugurates a mega project, a pedestrian comment from an element in the minority party will continue to make the front page banner news of the leading newspaper while the mega government project is hidden in a corner.

The current confusion about a so-called Joy FM bias against government leading to the short lived boycott is a combination of the lack of appreciation of impression management in polity on the one hand and the fact that some of these junior ministers can't and don't appeal to editors of the government press or worse still, the virile agenda setting Coffee Shop Mafia has succeeded in taking the propaganda game to the government.

In 2005, I had the rare privilege of talking to some media owners in the Western and Ashanti regions about the possibility of the editors allowing the critical Radio Gold to relay some of its programmes on selected radio stations in the two regions. I was simply told by one of them that there was no way the government would allow anything of that nature to happen and that if any radio station tried, it would have itself to blame. Indeed, for all the eight years of the Kufuor rule, the pro-NDC Radio Gold tried introducing its programming to the Western and Ashanti regions but each attempt was met with arm twisting by unseen forces, which led to the programmes being taken off the air. It was only until recently that its Saturday news analysis programme, Alhaji & Alhaji and the rather out of steam Konkonsa programme started airing on Radio Kapital and another in Kumasi.

So, the reach of Gold is very limited in scope. Its listenership is narrow and its credibility is rather as good as the answer one would get by asking an overfed party foot soldier about the performance of his/her government. Worse of all, its programming is not dynamic and Radio Gold’s growth has not been helped much since the coming into office of the NDC government. The incessant blackouts still keep its programmes of air daily. Its internet broadcasts are erratic, possibly due to a low bandwidth or again the wanton power cuts, which put programming off air almost every hour. It hasn't rebranded itself well enough to attract neutral listeners or big ticket advertisers and sponsors.

And if the posturing of civil society over the years is anything to go by, one can say without a shred of doubt that should private radio stations begin calling the 2012 poll results, discerning minds would take those results coming from the Kokomlemle-based radio station more seriously while those from Radio Gold and Peace FM will both be treated with contempt – because everybody knows that when it comes to balance, these two radio stations are just out of the equation. Radio Gold is to NDC, while Peace FM is to NPP, plain and simple.

As for the government, this is not time to begin rebranding yourself as a hostile and anti-press or anti-free speech, which are both fundamental human rights guaranteed by the constitution. Already, the government is believed to have done a lot of work in the rural areas all of which are believed to have gone unreported because of the inexperience of government's information machinery. A commentator has even described the government as communication team as confused and “information dry”.

Has this government asked itself why the Kokomlemle-based radio station deliberately empanels new convert Malik Kweku Baako Jr on its Saturday news review programme, Newsfile on every Saturday? Baako comes across as a well researched guy who is able to consistently punch holes in NDC government policies. He is so confident that even if he's wrong his well rehearsed eloquence can make an Einstein forget his basic arithmetic formula. So, including Baako on the Newsfile panel gives a certain quarter a huge advantage. Smart move by an up-to-the-task NPP communications team!

Again, internationally, the government gag order comes across as a clumsy move. This is so if we want to dismiss minister Boateng's contradictory statement that it was not the government which was issuing the ban, but rather people working on behalf of government issued the fiat. By extension, it is government assigns who blurted out this ill-thought through measure therefore it's the government, Mr Boateng!

Many Ghanaians felt so proud when on his maiden visit to Ghana, President Barak Obama mentioned Anas Aremeyaw Anas as a courageous journalist. Ghanaians never cared which media house the journalist worked for. But the glory was all ours to savour at the time. Multimedia is a true pace setter in Ghana’s independent broadcasting arena. On the other hand, it is true that government also controls the purse. So in this case, as conflict management teaches us, it's the carrot and stick strategy which might work here. It's a win-win approach that is the key here. In this tussle, Joy FM might starve, but only for a period. But government's suffering might lead to an irreparable damage, which might be too late to fix.

The voices of reason must reign now. For those who claim that there are other platforms, which can propagate government's programmes, please wake up. Joy FM might not support you, but announcing to the whole world that you are blacklisting it doesn't solve the puzzle. Is the GJA also made up of only pro-NPP journalists? Can government appeal to some moderates in there?

In any case, does government still have an alleged 10 percent stake in Joy FM? That is if the way the radio station started at the studios of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation is anything to go by. If government is a shareholder, is there not a possibility for government to use its shareholder status to moderate the confusion?

Anyway, this is Ghana, where everything is always in a topsy-turvy mode. To use the correct expression of my uncles, in Ghana, everything is ‘basaa’!

Source: Kojo Owusu-Mbire

Email: owusumbire@gmail.com