Eight radio stations cited for promoting indecent expression

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), has cited eight radio stations for allowing its platform to be used to promote indecent expression.

In a statement to the Ghana News Agency on Monday, signed by Professor Kwame Karikari, MFWA Executive Director, named the stations as: Classic FM; Adom FM; Oman FM; Ankobra FM; Hot FM; Peace FM; Radio Gold; and Space FM.

According to the Foundation, all the 17 indecent expressions, including the one rebroadcast captured during the week under review September 23 - 29, (26th week of monitoring) were recorded on the eight radio stations.

The statement said Classic FM was the only station on which five of the indecorous remarks were made. The breakdown of the indecent expressions captured on each of the eight radio stations are as follows;

Table:         Radio Stations by Expressions Used

Radio Station	Types of Expressions recorded on Radio
	Insulting/ Offensive Comments	Unsubstantiated Allegations	Innuendoes	Total
Classic FM	1	4	0	5
Adom FM	2	0	1	3
Oman FM	3	0	0	3
Ankobra FM	0	1	1	2
Hot FM	1	0	0	1
Peace FM	0	0	1	1
Radio Gold	0	1	0	1
Space FM	0	1	0	1
Total	7	7	3	17

According to MFWA, the incidence of indecent expressions has relatively gone down compared to the previous weeks’ reports (September 2 – 22, 2012), including the occurrence of indecent expressions on Oman FM.

The Foundation noted that the reduction was not significant enough especially as other radio stations such as Classic FM registered a lot of indecent expressions in the week under review.

The MFWA once again urges the management, editorial board, producers and presenters of all radio stations, especially those cited in this report, to try their best to insist on decency on their respective networks, as part of their organisation’s contribution towards peaceful, free and fair elections.

The MFWA urged radio stations to desist from the replay of indecent expressions on their networks since they tend to amplify such expressions and their potentially negative ramifications.

The MFWA monitoring electoral campaign language on radio is a project funded by STAR-Ghana.

The main objective of the project is to contribute to issues-based and decent language campaigning during the December polls.