Government reaffirms its commitment to expand media frontiers

Government on Thursday reaffirmed its commitment to expanding the frontiers of media freedom in spite of boycotting the platform of Multimedia radio stations across the country.

“Government remains committed to press freedom and would ensure that these freedoms are guaranteed at all times. In this regard, the Ministry of Information has accepted a request by the management of Multimedia for a meeting,” a statement signed by the Minister of Information, Mr Fritz Baffour stated.

The statement explained that the ruling party belong to a proud tradition which promulgated the most media-friendly Constitution, the 1992 Constitution.

“We promulgated a Constitution which guarantees the freedom and independence of the press, created the National Media Commission which insulates the State-owned media from governmental control.

“We are even more proud of the new gains we are making in establishing the first-ever Media Development Fund and making significant progress on the Right to Information bill which moved from the Executive to the Legislature, for the first time in more than nine years,” Mr Baffour noted.

Reacting to reactions to Government’s decision to boycott the platform of Multimedia, the Information Minister said the reactions have attempted to distort the facts and paint the government as “anti media”.

He said it is inaccurate for critics of government to aver that before this decision to boycott Multimedia, government had not resorted to other means of seeking redress.

“Indeed, the records will show that government over the past three years has had cause to petition the National Media Commission (NMC) and other stakeholders in matters of unfair and bias reportage by members of the Multimedia platforms,” he said.

He said the Ministry of Information on July 7th, 2010, lodged a complaint with the NMC against member of the Multimedia Group - Joy FM over a news report that Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) executives had received death threats and so were withdrawing their petition on the STX housing project from Parliament.

Again, on November 1, 2010, government lodged a complaint against Joy FM and Adom FM (both from the Multimedia group) over a false report of an armed attack and mass rape of passengers on a Tamale-bound passenger bus.

The statement cited other instances including “a false Joy FM news report that the Vice President, John Dramani Mahama was met with gunshots at Buipe, when reports from other reporters on the scene was that though there was a disagreement between two royal groups, it ended hours before the Vice President arrived at the ceremony and that there were no gun shots. Joy FM failed to retract or apologize for the false publication.

“Joy FM reported yet another false and fabricated story that the Vice President had bribed Mr Ebenezer Ato Sam (Baby Ansaba) to go on air and condemn the opposition NPP and also make false confessions or have him prosecuted for a road offence.

“Despite the denial of that story by all the persons involved, Joy FM failed to substantiate, retract or apologize. Following a story that said some military personnel stripped naked and man-handled two teachers in Bawku, Joy FM spoke to a certain Dr. Bukari from the Bawku hospital who painted a horrific picture of the alleged injuries of the victims.

“The management of the Bawku hospital issued a press statement saying they did not have any Doctor on their staff list by that name. Again, Joy FM refused to broadcast the hospital’s reaction, did not retract and did not substantiate their false claim.

“Joy FM reported that BNI operatives who went to the house of a former Kosmos Energy staff, stripped him naked before his family. But the man himself denied the story, explaining that the investigators who came were civil and professional. Yet, Joy FM refused to at least apologise for the false publication”.

The statement further stated that a World Economic Forum report said Ghana's investment climate has improved by four decimal points….”Joy FM in reporting the news claimed that Ghana did not have a favourable climate, any longer, for investment because it had gone down by four decimal places from 2008.

“After arguing over their false claims, when they decided to report the fact, Joy FM refused to acknowledge that they had erred in their earlier reports”.

The Information Ministry said Government had held discuss with management and staff of Multimedia on many other concerns including unfair empanelling, the presentation of views of resource persons who have known bias as if they were neutral, fabrications and distortions of international reports on Ghana, unfair allocation of time during interviews and unfair allotment of exclusive interviews tilted in favour of the main opposition political party.

The statement said the government decision to boycott came about only after several engagements and petitions which in most times have been treated with contempt by Multimedia.

The Government noted that the recent incident at Asempa FM where the NPP Youth Organiser, Mr. Anthony Karbo, led a group of NPP supporters to invade the station and disrupted a live programme.

Government has been surprised by the inability of Multimedia to condemn this unruly and undemocratic conduct and has refused or failed to assure NDC panelists of their safety.

We have been even more surprised at the strange happenings in the aftermath; as we have all observed, the Asempa FM programme was initially taken off air for some days, only to be brought back with a different host and the NPP publicly stating that their plot has worked.

“For more than three years, we have been at the receiving end of unfair and bias conduct from Multimedia and our reaction was informed by the above. As a responsible government, we would never adopt the NPP Karbo approach or other covert means of sabotage in making our case but as adherents of good governance we have chosen to be open and transparent.

“Multimedia would be the first to admit that if government had an agenda against it, we would not have through Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) invested in its expansion projects by buying Multimedia bonds or could have resorted to embarrass them in Ghana Broadcasting Corporation’s 10 per cent shares in which they are not up to date in dividends payment. **