----- Original Message -----
From: "Andy Mensah" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 6:30 PM
Subject: [unioNews] Press Freedom In Ghana - How Beneficial
Monday, November 10, 2003
<H3>Press Freedom In Ghana . How Beneficial</H3>
By Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh
The UN Secretary-General, Busumuru Kofi Annan, has noted that "in
every society, freedom of the press is essential to transparency,
accountability, good governance and the rule of law. It cannot be
suppressed without dire consequences for social cohesion and
stability. When it is sacrificed, whatever the reason invoked, the
chances are that conflict is not far down the road."
The World Bank President, James D. Wolfensohn also submits that "a
free press is not a luxury. A free press is at the absolute core of
equitable development because if you cannot enfranchise poor people,
if they do not have a right to expression, if there is no searchlight
on corruption and equitable practices, you cannot build the public
consensus needed to bring about change."
Richard Brinsley Sheridan has noted that with a free press, even a
dictator can be contained. He states that "Give me but the liberty of
the press. And I will give the Minister a corrupt and servile House
of Commons.
I will give him full swing of the patronage of office. I will give
him the whole host of ministerial influence. I will give him all the
power that place can confer upon him to purchase submission and
overawe resistance.
And yet, armed with the liberty of the press, I will go forth to meet
him undismayed. I will attack the mighty fabric of the mightier
engine. I will shake down from its height corruption and bury it
beneath the ruins of the abuse it was meant to shelter."
An Appeal Court judge in Britain has noted that "A free press is an
essential element in maintaining democracy. But, it is important to
remember why the press occupies this crucial position. It is not
because of any special wisdom, interest or status enjoyed by
proprietors, editors or journalists.
It is because the media are the eyes and ears of the general public.
Their right to know and their right to publish is neither more nor
less than that of the general public. Indeed, it is that of the
general public for whom they are trustees."
Thomas Erskine submits that "a free press, like the spear of
Telephus, could heal the wounds it inflicts upon the body politic."
He argues that "let men communicate their thoughts with freedom and
their indignation fly off like fire spread on the surface; like
gunpowder scattered, they kindle, they communicate, but the explosion
is neither loud nor dangerous, keep them under restraint, it is
subterranean fire whose agitation is unseen till it bursts into
earthquake or volcano."
I have cited all these to underline the fact that the media, and for
that matter free media, are essential for qualitative social growth.
As has been noted by Thomas Jeffeson, "the press is the best
instrument for enlightening the mind of man and improving him as a
rational, moral social being". No matter what you make of this
statement, it cannot be denied that the media add to the knowledge
and understanding of people.
Mindful of the key role that the media play in the strengthening of
democracy and empowerment of people, the 1992 Constitution provides
in Article 21 that "all persons shall have the right to freedom of
speech and expression which shall include freedom of the press and
other media". There is also Article 162 which guarantees media
freedom and enjoins those in the media to hold the government
accountable to the people.
However, because the media are capable of both good and evil, they
are enjoined to demonstrate responsibility. In Article 41 (d) the
Constitution provides that "the exercise and enjoyment of rights and
freedoms is inseparable from the performance of duties and
obligations, and accordingly, it shall be the duty of every citizen
to respect the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of others,
and generally to refrain from doing acts detrimental to the welfare
of other persons."
Dr Martin Luther King has noted that "an injustice anywhere, is a
threat to justice everywhere". Therefore, it does not make sense that
journalists in their attempt to protect society must sacrifice the
rights of individuals. The claim to media freedom can only be
meaningful when it is exercised responsibly.
As has been noted by the MacBride Commission on Communications, "for
the journalist, there must be no difference between freedom and
responsibility because there can be no exercise of responsibility
without freedom, while freedom without responsibility undermines
freedom."
It is precisely because the media must ensure and provide balance
between freedom and responsibility to remain relevant to society that
the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has consistently prosecuted
campaigns for media responsibility and ethical standards from media
practitioners.
The Code of Ethics of the GJA takes into account the necessity to
protect the basic rights of individuals, because human rights is
essentially about the right of individuals to act in so far as they
do not injure their own being, reduce their self-esteem or undermine
the wider interest of society.
Mahatma Gandhi, has observed that the media are like great rivers,
which provide the basis for human civilisation in good times, but
which when in flood, destroy the very basis and essence of humanity.
He, therefore, appeals to the media to exercise restraint in the
discharge of their obligations.
If individuals are to play their roles effectively in society, then
they must be adequately informed with sufficient facts upon which to
make rational judgements and decisions. Freedom of the press in its
widest sense then represents the collective enlargement of each
citizens freedom of expression.
Democracy thrives with educated, open and knowledgeable people who
must have access to a wide range of information to enable them to
participate fully in the affairs of society.
An American writer, E. B. White, has noted that citizens in a
democracy live with the conviction that through an open exchange of
ideas and opinions, truth will eventually win over falsehood, the
value of others will be better understood, areas of compromise more
clearly defined and the path of progress opened.
White puts it thus, "the press in our free country is reliable and
useful, not because of its good character but because of its great
diversity. As long as there are many owners, each pursuing his own
brand of truth, we the people have the opportunity to arrive at the
truth and dwell in the light. There is safety in numbers."
Prof. Paul Ansah has noted that "it can be argued and demonstrated
that a certain measure of the right to express one's views in the
media and the encouragement of a free flow of information through the
social system, is more likely to stimulate fresh thinking than a
suffocating atmosphere of oppression which can only stifle the mind
and render impossible the release of creative energies of the people."
A Kenyan lawyer/editor, Mr Gitobu Imanyara has noted that media
practitioners are the custodians of liberty and therefore, they must
always speak out, criticise and expose wrongdoings, since it is "the
exposure of the rights and wrongs, of the strengths and weaknesses
that provide the essential bulwark against the ever-encroaching
tyranny that is the handmaid of corruption and the smouldering
oppression that has been the curse of Africa."
Dr Martin Luther King puts this another way when he submits that any
act that derogates or degrades the humanity or dignity of an
individual, abuse of human rights, must first be exposed and
resisted. To him, it is important to expose all the ills of society
so that they could be remedied.
The abuse of the fundamental right of any citizen must of necessity
be exposed by the media. We must bring them out "in the open where it
can be dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured as long as it
is covered up but must be opened with all its pus-flowing ugliness to
the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must likewise be
exposed, with all of the tension exposure creates, to the light of
human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be
cured."
It is principles such as these that informed the provision in the
1992 Constitution that "editors and publishers of newspapers and
other institutions of the mass media shall not be subject to the
control or interference by government, nor shall they be penalised or
harassed for their editorial opinions and views or the content of
their publications."
This is to enable them to effectively discharge their obligations
to "uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to
the people of Ghana."
Media freedom does not mean that where journalists malign an
individual, there is no remedy. Indeed, what media freedom means in
reality is that nobody should be prevented from saying what they want
to say. However, once they have said that and they offend another
person, that other person can take action.
In the present dispensation, the remedies available include the
publication of rejoinders. An aggrieved party can make a complaint to
the National Media Commission, which after investigating the matter,
if it finds the media guilty, can order them to carry a rejoinder,
retract a publication and offer an apology.
But for the media to be beneficial, "they must help disseminate
information, ensure that we appreciate the different viewpoints and
alternatives available, classify, analyse, clarify and interpret for
society knowledge, with a view to improving social co-existence,
which is the same as improving democracy and development."
In the words of a Mass Communication Professor from Costa Rica, Prof.
Carlos Morales, "journalism in a democracy should be critical,
overseeing, free to the point that its most honest commitments allow
divergence in any social grouping so that it can offer the necessary
checks and balances that modern democracy requires."
James Madison arguing in support of media freedom stated that "a
popular government without information or the means of acquiring it,
is but prologue to a farce or tragedy: or perhaps both, knowledge
will forever govern ignorance. And people who mean to be their own
government must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives."
A strong emphasis for media freedom and accountability was sounded by
the late President General Joseph Momoh of Sierra Leone, who was
quoted by West Africa magazine to have said in 1980 that "we believe
the media must be given every amount of freedom. If you muzzle the
people for too long, it will get to a point when they will not be
able to absorb it.
They will explode and there will be a development similar to what is
now taking place in Eastern Europe. However, the media should realise
this in going about their duties, they must be responsible, they
cannot afford to be reckless. My argument has always been that the
journalists, pen is as lethal as the rifle in the hands of a military
marksman."
You are the better witnesses than myself since I have never wielded a
gun before, but one thing is certain, "a free man when he fails,
blames no one."
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QUOTATION:
"All of us may not live to see the higher accomplishments of an African
empire, so strong and powerful as to compel the respect of mankind, but we
in our lifetime can so work and act as to make the dream a possibility
within another generation"
-<html><A HREF="http://members.aol.com/GhanaUnion/afrohero.html">Ancestor
Marcus Mosiah Garvey <i>(1887 - 1940)</i></A></html>
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