Irresponsible Journalism - The Ill Wind that Blows Nobody Any Good

A GNA Feature by Boakye-Dankwa Boadi

An Akan wise saying states that if one saw another person's house on fire one should fetch water and put it by his own house.

This saying presupposes that men would normally act wisely but unfortunately that is not always the case. While it is normal to expect that people would always act responsibly, sight should not be lost that since society has a gamut of characters there would always be those Sociologists call deviants.

It is said that history had shown that men never learn from history. The Nigerian Civil War was precipitated by a news item on Radio Bamenda in Northern Cameoroon. The Radio Station reported that Hausa Fulani man had been killed at Enugu Railway Station, in the then Eastern Nigeria.

The Huasas in Kano then attacked Sabon Gida, where Ibos lived and there was mayhem.

When the then Governor of Kano, Colonel Chukumeka Odumegu Ojukwu asked for permission to use soldiers to stop the killing of Ibos in Kano the then Military High Command declined. He then had no alternative than to leave Kano. When he went home he assembled his people at the University of Nsuka and after a lengthy meeting the Ibo Leadership decided that since the Nigerian Government had refused to protect Ibos they were no longer going to be part of Nigeria. They seceded and formed the Republic of Biafra. For 30 months Nigerians fought Nigerians. The slogan for the Federal Government during the Civil War was:

'To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done!'

Recently, a careless statement made by a Journalist about the Holy Prophet Mohammed and girls, who were taking part in a beauty pageant, resulted in the death of about 100 people in Nigeria.

One would have thought that Ghanaian Journalists, who are supposedly very enlightened, would not make such silly mistakes but alas! What are we witnessing?

Some Journalists and pseudo-journalists have decided to throw caution to the wind and have been indulging in yellow journalism.

Every responsible Journalist in this part of our world should know that matters involving, chieftaincy, land dispute, religion and ethnicity inflame passion. When it comes to these, emotion rather than reason takes over. Every responsible Journalist would, therefore, not attempt to breach the sensibilities of any section of the society.

If any Journalist decides to use the media to denigrate a whole people by passing unsavoury remarks about personalities, who are the embodiment of their being, then of course such a Journalist would be courting trouble for himself or herself.

One only prays that we would not degenerate into the logic of Forces Sergeant Major Frimpong alias 'Red Lights of blessed memory: If you have the pen and think that you can write anything against anybody then since I also have the strength I would also beat you up.'

However, if care is not taken we may fall into that state. The pronounceent by the Asante Youth Association (AYA) and Asante United Front (AUF) last Wednesday describing some journalists, presenters and radio callers as enemies of Asanteman and, therefore, calling on all Asantes to regard them as such does not augur well for this country.

As a country we should not push our luck too far. Assuming that a young and energetic Asante also elects to corner any of these journalists and beats him up into a pulp for daring to hurt his sensibilities what would happen?

Remember assault is a misdemeanour that can easily pass for a fine in the law courts. But do we have to sink to the level of brutish beasts?

The Fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana goes at length to protect the Media, especially the State owned Media against Governmental control. Indeed the protection of the Media according to some analysts is 'an over protection' that had given way for media practitioners to be irresponsible.

In fact one political commentator had teased that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government must be cursing its stars for repealing the Criminal Libel Law.

Some Politicians have started complaining about what they term as 'the tyranny of the media'.

Indeed the Media in Ghana is having a field day -the cocaine bust and others. But the question is how is the media facilitating the cause of the evolution of a knowledge based society when they churn out half truths and some go all out to peddle rumours and present opinions as facts?

Some have argued that with Media pluralism one should expect all sorts of things in the media since the media is nothing but a reflection of the society. Some have also said that every society gets the media it wants and thus what is found in the media is what Ghanaians wanted.

Some Media Professional in the private media have said that anytime they put out a social news on their front pages they had a lot of returns but anytime they put out a sensational political story the papers are all sold out.

On the face value one could argue that since the private media must survive they have to put out what could be sold so that they would continue to be in business.

There was a recent analysis of the contents of the media that showed that the Ghanaian media was putting out a lot of insults. Indeed it seems that the media in Ghana is riding the tiger and one does not know when this is going to end.

An Accra High Court in passing judgement in a libel suit brought against one newspaper said it could not tell media practitioners what they should write but if they wrote anything and they were brought before it, it would show them how unwise it was for them to have written what they wrote and went ahead to impose a very heavy fine on the affected media house.

This should show media practitioners that the red lights have started blinking and the earlier they mended their ways the better it would be for all of us.

One would like to end with the advice the Ghana Journalists Association gave to Journalists in their statement on the pronouncement by the two Asante Groups: 'We all must learn to apply decorum and circumspection with regard to our rights to free expression and press freedom.'