Coverage by state-owned media unfavourable to minority parties

A study conducted by the School of Communications Studies of the University of Ghana on the coverage of political parties by the state-owned media in the run-up to the 2000 elections, has revealed that the state-owned media coverage was unfavourable for the minority political parities.

The report, undertaken for the National Media Commission (NMC) with a Royal Danish Embassy assistance, has therefore called on the management boards of state-owned media organisations to put in place mechanisms to improve coverage of political parties, by ensuring fairness and equal access to all.

The study, conducted between August and November 2000, sought to assess state-owned media coverage of political parties from 1996 to November 2000. It covered the Ghana News Agency, Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Times, The Mirror, The Weekly Spectator, Radio Ghana, GAR, GBC Radio One and Two, GBC regional FM stations and Ghana Television.

It also conducted interviews with media personnel involved in editorial decision-making, and official functionaries of the various political parties.

The 52-page report said the bulk of state-owned media coverage of political parties within the period went to the then ruling NDC, followed by the NPP.

"The newspaper coverage for the NDC took up 44.5 per cent of the total, the NPP trailed with 22.7 per cent, whilst the other minority parties received insignificant attention," it said. "Radio recorded 55.5 per cent coverage for the NDC, 21.5 for the NPP and the other parties, again, very insignificant."

The report said GTV gave 37.3 per cent coverage of political parties to the NDC, 15.2 per cent to the NPP, 13.6 per cent to the defunct People's Convention Party (PCP) and 10.2 per cent to Edward Mahama's PNC. "The GNA's coverage of the NDC represented 47.9 of the total political news output, with NPP receiving 24.5 per cent as the other parties trail in single digits," the report said.

On the contrary, the report said, "whereas there were occasional attempts at a critical reportage of the internal dynamics of the NPP and other opposition parties, there was no such attempt at looking at the internal workings of the NDC in the same press that made the former effort".

It particularly deplored Daily Graphic dedication of space to columns that were pro-NDC, citing R. W. B. Hesse's Agenda Unlimited as an example.

"As a national entity, if the Daily Graphic or any such paper wishes, it may decide to give columns a week to all political parties, or make no such gestures at all," the report said.

The report said the general imbalance in terms of volume of coverage per party ought to be redressed by conscious and arithmetical effort by the management of the media houses, with the view to ensuring open fairness to all parties.

It observed that apart from the disparity in the coverage of the political parties, there was a similar disparity in the rural-urban political activity coverage, adding that most of the new reports were from the urban areas.

The report also noted that most of the reportage were shallow news stories, which generally lacked follow-ups to issues raised that required further investigation, thus depriving the audience of the complete news.

It therefore urged state-owned media houses to revamp their political news coverage to include more in-depth news stories, features, documentaries, exclusive interviews and detailed reports on political party ideologies and positions on issues of public concern as determined by voting patterns in parliament.

"The GNA must also be supported to increase its coverage of political activities in the rural areas, and the state-owned media is advised to patronise this output by the GNA," the report said.

The report praised the GNA and Ghanaian Times for maintaining excellent archives and called on the other state-owned media to revamp their archives, saying that media archive is useful for policy makers, legislators, the police, researchers and investors among others.

It called on the NMC to educate both the state-owned and private media on the Supreme Court ruling on the NPP versus GBC, in which the court ordered fair coverage for all political parties.