Blocking social media is not the way to go, Mr IGP

Whether we like it or not, social media has now become part of our media system and like every human invention, it has its negative side.

However, no one can deny the fact that social media tools such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Imo and other platforms now play a very important role in social communication.

As a result of the social or new media, the art of communication is no more the preserve of the few trained journalists and communicators.

A new kind of journalist, the citizen journalist, has now emerged. With the new applications which are within reach on simple android phones, the citizen journalist is now giving the trained media a run for their money in terms of the speed with which they are able to relay information to a broad spectrum of people in their circles.

The snag, however, is the fact that because they are not trained, these citizen journalists are not regulated by any code of ethics; unlike the traditional media personnel. This bottleneck, we agree, can result in misrepresentation of  issues that would require thorough investigations or false communication to the general public.

The activities of these people can even breach national security.

The Daily Graphic, however, believes that blocking the use of social media before and during Election Day as proposed by the Inspector General of Police, Mr John Kudalor, in an interaction with the media last Thursday is rather a simplistic way of tackling the social media challenge during the period.

Ghana’s ranking on the world press freedom list has in recent times suffered a plunge due to some infractions on the Ghanaian press, including the delay in passing the Right to Information Bill.

New media have become such a force that they cannot be ignored. In view of that, most traditional media have now incorporated social media in their activities. For instance, most media organisations in Ghana now have Facebook and Twitter accounts, which they also use to reach their publics.

The Daily Graphic opines that contrary to the IGP’s assertion that a blockage of social media would stem the tide of election violence, any attempt to prevent people from exercising their rights and freedom to communicate through social media would rather have the propensity to engender civil strife.

Instead, we urge the security services to liaise with the National Communications Authority (NCA) to fish out anyone found using any of the platforms to disturb the peace of the country, and this must not be limited to the election period.

After all, it was to enable the NCA and telecommunication companies track down anyone using any of the networks for acts inimical to the peace of the country that it was made mandatory for people to register their SIM cards before they use them.

We know that there are still challenges in locating some people who use their SIM cards to perpetuate fraud through SIM boxing. 

The Daily Graphic thinks that if the IGP, or for that matter the Ghana Police Service, anticipates security breaches during the election through the use of social media, the state should initiate the processes to regulate the platform through dialogue with the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the National Media Commission (NMC) and the NCA.

We appeal to the IGP to rethink his move as that may be regarded as regressive in a democratic society. For a media of mass communication must be made available to all actors in a democratic space.