Fall in foul language use down due to Montie 3 jailing - MFWA

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has said the “significant” reduction in the use of foul language in the media for July could be down to the Supreme Court’s jailing of the Montie 3.

Alistair Nelson, Godwin Ako Gunn and Salifu Maase, aka, Mugabe, were sentenced to a four-month jail term by the apex court for scandalising and bringing the name of the court into disrepute. The three had threatened to kill justices of the court on a political programme called Pampaso on Accra-based Montie FM. Prior to their jailing, Montie FM had topped the league table of abusive language use on the airwaves in the MFWA’s monthly reports.

In the MFWA’s July report ahead of the December polls, a total of 44 indecent expressions were recorded on a total of 1,474 radio programmes monitored on 60 radio stations across the country.

The previous report released in June had a total of 120 indecent expressions on various media platforms.

Programmes Manager for MFWA, Dora Mawutor told Prince Minkah on Class FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Wednesday that the recent incarceration of the three Montie FM contenmors could be a contributing factor to the sharp reduction in the use of abusive language, even though she said there was no scientific basis for her assertion.

“It looks like a steady reduction and the sharp reduction of 120 in June to 44 in July is quite significant and could be attributed to the fall out of the Montie 3 and matters arising,” she stated.

The latest report still has the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) as the party whose members used the most abusive language on the airwaves. The report said activists and representatives of the NPP made a total of 17 indecent expressions. The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), which topped the foul language league table in June, followed with a total of 7 indecent expressions.

The Foundation said overall, Hopeson Adorye, a member of the NPP communication team, and Listowell Nana Kusi Poku of a group called National Labour Party (NLP) topped the list of individuals who made indecent expressions during the month of July. Each of them made five (5) indecent expressions.

Accra-based Happy FM and Montie FM topped the pack of stations that recorded the use of abusive expressions on their platforms with 7 incidents each out of the 44 incidents recorded, followed by Zaa Radio and Okay FM with 4 incidents each.