‘Useless’ MFWA fronting for NDC to gag opponents – Bempah

The governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) is using the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) as a henchman to gag perceived opponents and critics, radio host and politician Ernest Owusu Bempah has said.

The MFWA, under its ‘Issues, Not Insults’ campaign, monitors and tracks indecent expressions used by politicians and activists on selected radio programmes daily. The exercise also involves monitoring and reporting on how presenters/moderators handle their programmes and whether or not they allow their platforms to be used to abuse others.

In the latest monitoring report, which is the second of several to be issued by the MFWA before, during, and after the 2016 elections (April-December), Accra-based private radio station Montie FM and the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), topped the list of stations and parties that allowed and used indecent language on the airwaves, respectively.

Following Montie FM closely in the abusive language league table was Happy FM, Accra, which recorded 13 indecent expressions, mostly from its Democracy programme hosted by Mr Bempah.

But Mr Bempah, who is a member of the National Democratic Party (NDP) founded by Mrs Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, is not enthused by the naming and shaming of his programme by the MFWA. He wondered if the MFWA had any “empirical evidence” to back its results.

Mr Bempah dismissed the MFWA’s work, alleging that the foundation had been hired by top persons in the governing party to put the NPP and individuals, whose comments are deemed unfavourable to the party, in bad light.

“I can tell you on authority that it is President Mahama, the NDC government, and a ways-and-means committee who have hired some persons...under a Media Foundation for West Africa to gag certain people they see as a political threat to them. And that’s what they are doing; it’s a gimmick to me…,” he told Nana Ama Agyarko on Accra News Tuesday June 7.

He recalled some comments in the past including President John Mahama’s plea to the people of northern extraction to vote for him ahead of the 2012 polls because he also hailed from that part of the country; his promise to Konkombas that he will personally ensure they obtained employment if he was elected as president, despite the Constitution engendering him to “foster unity among tribes in this country”; and former Transport Minister Mrs Dzifa Attivor’s plea to the people of Ketu South not to vote for the NPP, since, in her view, the party would target her and other Ewes in the current administration for prosecution, should it return to power in 2017, as comments, which merited condemnation by the MFWA. “Where was the Media Foundation during all these?” he asked.

He continued: “The Media Foundation [for West Africa] is a useless organisation, I am telling you on authority; they cannot use that [the ranking] to gag anybody. If they have anything to say, they should call President Mahama to order,” as the president, according to him, “is the chief architect of reckless statements in this country”.