By Prince Okokoroko

How many times haven’t you heard Ghanaian leaders complain bitterly about the negative media reports on the country by the international media? The answer is obvious, on countless occasions Ghanaian leaders as well as many African leaders have had to complain about the negative publicity of their country.

Many times news items about Africa and in this case Ghana has always been about extreme poverty, starvation, wars ,diseases, dirty environment etc you rarely read or watch a news item about Africa in the international media and reference is made to the development of the African continent.

In the later part of last year the then New Patriotic Party(NPP) administration had to spend months assuring the international community that there was nothing like child labor in cocoa growing areas in the country instead the children seen were just helping their parents on their farms. Something that is allowed in the Ghanaian family set-up and these children are not paid any form of wages at the end of the day.

This was as a result of international media reports that Ghanaian cocoa farmers were using children as laborers in their daily activities and since the International Labor Organization (ILO) frowns on the use of children as labor Ghana’s cocoa which is the country’s major foreign exchange earner stood the risk of a possible ban in the international market.

One can just imagine the consequences it would have had on our fragile economy. This controversy went on for sometime due to the lack of understanding of our socio-cultural dynamics by these western journalists.

A member of parliament at that time said “I get angry when I hear those misrepresentations, especially by the western media, referring to the help we give to our parents in the cocoa farm, which is the family business, as child labour.”

The issue is do we wait until the issue has been put out there before we take a reactive measures or we help these international journalists to understand the various socio-cultural dynamics in our country so as to help protect our motherland.

The current Minister of Information, Mrs. Zita Okaikoi has been accused recently by a pro-NPP newspaper the Statesman of issuing a statement which in their understanding is an attempt to censor the foreign media.

The freedom of the press is a key ingredient in our democracy and the current Minister of Information has on several occasions reiterated her unflinching support to ensure that journalists in Ghana and worldwide enjoy the maximum freedom they deserve.

During the golden jubilee celebration of our country I was watching a news report on an international channel and the reporter as usual in reporting about our celebration started on the premise that despite the high poverty rate and people not getting water to drink , issues of lack of school buildings the government was spending 20million dollars an amount that later far exceeded on our golden jubilee celebration.

Perhaps to send a clearer picture about the Ghana situation and how our leaders at that time had lost their priorities the pictographic report focused mainly on the slum areas and the dirty parts of Ghana.

Another instance when I witnessed a bad representing of a seeming sweet moment for Ghana was when Ghana qualified for the world cup and when a documentary was being shown about the country the International media started showing the dirtiest parts of our country , couldn’t they have shown places like the Cantonments , East Legon ,Trassacco Valley etc. afterall is Ghana not more urbanized currently then about 30 years ago.

Are these international media organizations trying to tell us that all is so well in their respective countries that there is no hunger, diseases , homelessness, dirty environments etc.

Lets assume the earlier directive by the Minister of Information which has since been suspended is equivalent to censorship, the question is was it wrong?

Writer Tamera Neilson Dobbins holds the opinion that the only circumstances that make government censorship appropriate in a free society is for the protection of the country, or for the protection of life.

In an age where freedom of expression cannot be stressed enough, a pro media censorship agreement can be considered as sacrilege! What people need to realize that censorship does not imply curbing the freedom of expression – it is merely drawing the line between freedom and unrestrained deviltry! Censorship is merely a reminder for people who have crossed the lines of morality and humanity under the name of freedom of expression.

Experts suggest that media censorship is necessary for checking three main problem areas in every country. These three areas are vulgarity (sexually explicit content), violence and racism.

In addition media censorship is necessary to see to it that the media is not being used as a tool to attack someone’s character or to discriminate ,humiliate people or even when is injurious to the national security.

The question that arises now is have Ghanaians suffered under any of those issues listed above? Yes, how many times haven’t you heard people pass racist comments such as “we hear you Africans still live on trees.”

The earlier directive by the Minister of Information I think per the circumstances was simply right since it was to ensure that foreign journalists that come to film images of our country for their international audience are accompanied by personnel from her outfit so as to make their work easier and give them the opportunity to clarify issues on the spot, let us not forget the child labor issue.

Giving the Information Ministry a copy of a documentary to be aired internationally about our country does not amount to censorship if for nothing at all it would prevent a situation where the country would be caught unaware of a negative story about our dear country.

Sometimes a good gesture by government is given a negative twist by various groups of people including the international media so just accrediting them and allowing them to go and have a fields day is not enough but also at the end presenting a copy of whatever is going out there would help foster better relations among countries.

Unless with a mischievous mind what is the big deal if one should provide a copy of whatever he/she is going to show about a country to their authorities. Perhaps journalists from the Statesman are trying to tell us that they can go to either the UK,US or any of these developed countries and film freely the negative sides of these countries.

We have come off age as a country and I think the time has come for us to take our destiny into our hands and ensure that our country gets the best out of the international world.

Ghana has come a long way both economically and socially and it is time for the international media to move away from always portraying Ghana as an extremely poor country and commend our leaders for how far they have brought us, the West did not just develop within a decade or two it took several decades and centuries and by the Grace of God the African continent would also get to the statute of a super power.

For the Minister of Information, Mrs. Zita Okaikoi, I wish to remind her that the culture and character of the Danquah-Busia tradition has been to be stooge to the international world and seek selfish rewards for themselves at the peril of the Ghanaian.

They did it to our First President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and also continue to do it to Former President Jerry John Rawlings so she should expert such twists from those wounded elephants.

The Western media has not been fair to Africa for a long time and since Ghana has always been at the fore-front of Africa liberalization I think the time has come for government to come out with a strong policy to ensure that they always don not blow issues out of proportion but rather give us the respect we deserve as a nation.

I believe the Professor John Evans Atta Mills led NDC administration believes in the freedom of the media and would do anything within it means to ensure that both local and foreign journalists operate in a free environment. Perhaps the NPP’s noise of being media friendly would be a thing of the past when the Mills led administration passes the Freedom of Information Act which would mark a monumental stride in our quest for a free and independent media.