London 2012: JOY FM Sports Reporter Goes Rouge

* over “Media Relations” i.e., Money*

Ghana’s Olympic Team, including a number of athletes, is peeved at the unethical nature of Joy FM’s coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games thus far. Tony Bebli of Joy FM currently in London has reported on issues without primary sources, fabricated stories attributed to athletes and misrepresented information provided to him by officials.

Incredibly officials are wondering if Mr. Bebli has decided to go negative since GOC made it clear that there is no “media relations” in the budget for him. For reference, Mr. Beli is not an accredited Olympic Games journalist but has been asking for “media relations” i.e. money, since he arrived.

On July 28th, Mr. Bebli filed a story titled “*Ghanaian boxer Maxwell Amponsah disqualified from Olympic Games*”. In his story, Mr. Bebli, fails to inform readers that his unnamed source was Mr. Dominic Kankam, secretary general of Ghana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA). According to Mr. Kankam he informed Mr. Bebli about a medical discussion concerning the welfare of Maxwell Amponsah since his fractured jaw is yet to fully heal. Yet, without cross checking with team mangers of Ghana’s Olympic Team (team doctor) and IOC Boxing medical staff, Mr Bebli goes on to state that Maxwell Amponsah has been disqualified from the Olympics; a false assertion.

The truth of the matter is that healing of Maxwell Amponsah’s jaw, fractured during Olympic qualifiers in Morroco, has not progressed as expected thus the discussion to withdraw him from competition over concerns for his career. It should be noted that Maxwell is currently in full training including sparring sessions but, medical officials have advised complete healing of his jaw before engaging in no-holds barred combat. Mr. Bebli had absolutely no interest in the nuances but sought to discredit GABA, GOC and Maxawell Amponsah.

In a separate story, Mr. Bebli again fabricates information citing unnamed sources. In his article titled “*Parents of Ghanaian boxer threaten to withdraw boxer from Olympic Games*” Mr. Bebli again cites unnamed 3rd party sources in reporting false information. According to the parents of boxer Isaac Dogboe who have spoken to Mr. Kankam since the story broke, they never threaten to withdraw Isaac over the apparent lack of ticket access to his fight. Asked directly, Isaac Dogbe flat out denied that his parents ever threatened to withdraw.

Mr. Bebli has indirect access to all boxers via the GOC press attaché. Yet he never contacted the press attaché to confirm information from his so-called unnamed source. Thus GOC officials are left wondering if their refusal to pay Mr. Bebli money i.e., "media relations" is the reason for his recent spate of misleading and inaccurate reporting.

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