Stop Focusing On JJ & NDC - Security Expert

The media's role of putting govt on its toes has suffered
Accra, Oct. 16, GNA - A security expert and military intelligent analysts on Thursday cautioned media practitioners over excessive criticism and focus on Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings' regime whilst being sympathetic to President John Agyekum Kufuor's Administration.

"The media has done a great job, but they have consistently focused on the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as if the party is still in power to the detriment of an objective criticism of the incumbent government," Dr Kwesi Aning, the Expert, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra.

Dr Aning, who is a Senior Research Fellow at the African Security Dialogue and Research (ASDR), noted "the shifting of position from the extreme right - being critical about the former government to extreme left - of embracing the present government is perilous.

"This is a dangerous phenomenon with a potential of degenerating into violence as Elections 2004 approach," he said.

The Security Expert also expressed concern about information packaging, saying the commercial element of business has overshadowed ethical journalistic values and practices of the profession.

He said: "The media's role of putting government on its toes has suffered over the last couple of years as occasionally one begins to wonder whether the media is playing its watchdog role effectively".

Dr Aning noted: "If the media failed to watch over government, corruption would escalate, crime rate would exacerbate and state machinery would grind to a halt leading to anarchy."

He called for the decoupling of what he described as the media /government embracement to ensure that government, political parties and the entire spectrum of society were subjected to objective criticism, saying this was necessary, because there was growing tension in the country as result of the political antagonism and suspicion between the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the main opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Dr Aning said: "For the sake of argument, if the NDC makes an objective credible criticism of government, it is perceived as political by the media.

"Whilst programmes and plans of NPP is also shrouded in political undertone by the same media."

The Security Expert explained it was important and crucial that the media was seen to be independent of and objectively critical of the government.

"It must not be dogmatically and robustly critical neither should it embrace government overwhelmingly".

Dr Aning also cautioned against the danger of continuous over emphasising of the role the media played during Elections 2000. He said: "We run into the periphery of making a media monster in 2004 with the sole power of deciding the fate of the entire nation as to who they deemed fit to rule."

Dr Aning said all segment of Ghanaian society and to a large extent the international community played a crucial role in the peaceful election and the subsequent transfer of political power.

He emphasised, "the churches, Trades Union Congress, Ghana National Association of Teachers, Non-Governmental Organisations, Civil Society and even those who were part of the oppressive system played active roles in national affairs."

Dr Aning said society expected the media to present a balanced view of even supposedly complex issues. To citizens of a nation the media served as the link between the ordinary people or the non-elected and the elected, Dr Aning said, adding, "media are the conduits through which views and ideas are exchanged".

The Military Intelligence Analysts urged media practitioners, the Ghana Journalists Association, socio-political commentators and politicians to be civil as the nation cruised towards Elections 2004. Dr Aning warned that any unguarded publication, pronouncement or action could ignite the political tension in the country.