We need order on social media platform

Developments continue to trickle in day-in and day-out regarding the case of the lady presenter who was allegedly abducted and subjected to assault.

We will not at this stage, go into the merits or otherwise of the case, out of respect for jurisprudence, since the case has gone to court.

However, there are some fallouts from the case that must be tackled so as to provide a healthy environment within which to situate matters bothering on the illegal capturing and dissemination of content that border on nudity or pornography contrary to our laws.

Without seeking to sound judgemental, it is appropriate to say that while a good number of the traditional media has exercised some measured level of self-regulation in the explicit display of the images, social media, with its unbridled power of exposure, seemed to have stopped at nothing in spreading the images with some fervour.

The level of restraint exercised by the traditional media in not publicising the sexually explicit images is understandable, in that, the principle of self-regulation has been the guiding principle.

That principle is contained in the codes of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the National Media Commission (NMC), the Private Newspapers Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) and other such media bodies.

The code enjoins practitioners to avoid the publications of the images of persons who are victims of sexual assault and also frowns on obscene imagery among other such negative publications.

It may be argued that in spite of these codes, some members of the professional groupings had defaulted in the past but that does not create a basis for continuous violations.

The bigger issue, however, is that while in the expansion of the right to expression and free speech, the media of communication keeps innovating in bringing up applications that facilitate expression without barriers, the more relevant issue is how constructively that freedom is being utilized, especially in our country.

The media, do not operate in a vacuum. They always operate within a certain socio-cultural context and need to be attuned to the idiosyncrasies that underpin that very system.

Apart from the laws of our land frowning on indecent exposure, we must not in our bid to express freely, subvert our cultural and religious practices that frown on certain things.

We must respect the sacrosanct principle of the dignity and privacy of all human beings especially children and women.

The Daily Graphic is of the view that some form of legal regulation must be introduced to check those who out of mere mischief, may decide to sacrifice the privacy of others by surreptitiously recording them and disseminating such content to a third party.

Democracy operates within the ambit of respect for the rights of others and not a license to publish and be damned.