The yellow card in the newsroom
If there is a moment an editor really dreads in the very competitive market of the news vendor, it is when the editor is compelled to confess publicly that a rough tackling of an issue has called for a yellow card, in the football parlance, and that he has to spot it as well.
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These also tend to be the moments another editor, especially of a rival publication or station, gleefully gloats over as if a penalty has been committed in his penalty area.
That moment is when an editor is compelled to publish an apology.
Journalists in general are brought up to hate being told how to pursue their profession, yet many practitioners seem to enjoy the own goals their colleagues or perhaps, better put, their competitors score. Some are even embarrassingly vocal over the humiliation of colleagues in the fraternity.
The gloating, however, is momentary as they soon realise that what has happened to their colleague can easily happen to them. The deadlines attached to the work of journalists make the ethics of the profession a minefield which can easily trap even the very experienced practitioner.
Under article Nine of its Code of Ethics, the Ghana Journalists Association advises that whenever there is an inaccurate or misleading report, it should be corrected promptly and given due prominence.
I am daring to state that the Ghanaian media landscape of today is saturated with too many unethical content, particularly guilty are the radio station hosts who allow their serial callers to insult and make all manner of accusations on air as if there are no ethics governing their work. That is the reason for this article.
The fact that the Ghana Bar Association recently charged and later dropped the charge relating to legal ethics against Lawyers Tsatsu Tsikata and Gabby Okyere Darko is extremely instructive. Here were a legal giant and another remarkable legal mind who had the yellow card brandished to them, even if the referee later ‘back pocketed’ it. This incident, for my purposes, serves as an occasion to highlight the relevance of adhering to ethics in all professions practised in the country, including journalism.
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Code of ethics
Even the politicians are attempting to regulate their performance. A little over a year ago, specifically, on January 8, 2013, President John Mahama launched a manual containing a code of ethics for Ministers of State and government appointees with a call on them to guard against bribery and corruption. As we all know, that was no ‘tweaa’ matter!
Mr Alan Bagbin’s reported allegation of bribe-taking by Parliamentarians has put our Legislature on the spot, awaiting how this serious development is going to be handled by Mr Speaker, in view of what the President and again for my purposes what the Match Commissioner has put out.
Working on the state-owned Daily Graphic in the seventies, I am proud to recall that our daily circulation target was 250,000. We hit it regularly, particularly when Cameron Duodu and Elizabeth Ohene were the Editors, through hard work and the pursuit of ethical innovative and muckraking journalism.
We endeavoured to be professionally neutral and not sing our master’s voice. I can hardly recall any instances of apology or being hauled before the courts for libel, sedition, pornography, etc. As a News Editor under Miss Ohene, I had confidence in the team of versatile reporters I led and collectively we were proud of our daily output. As a result, the Daily Graphic sold every morning like hot kenkey.
With vision, the Graphic Board at the time had decided to strengthen the editorial team with new staff, recruited from the University of Ghana, Legon, including Teddy Konu - former Registrar, University of Ghana, Kwamena Anaman – former President, Ghana Chamber of Mines, and AGC Public Affairs Director, Kofi Asomani – UNHCR, Nana Daniels – former Chief Sub, late Kofi Akumanyi – Commissioning Editor, CIO in the UK, Nii Bortey Tagoe, currently in the US and I.
Our secret was the kind of training Graphic designed by which we were made to sit next to NELLY and study, in Biblical terms, at the feet of stalwarts like Anthony Mensah and Sarpong Manu, two very experienced planners on the Sub Desk, Dan Tetteh on the Foreign Desk, Nana Addo Twum and Ken Bediako on the Sports Desk or Lovelace Johnson on the News Desk and the unforgettable Charles Asante, the master page planner.
They were uncompromising in instilling professional journalism practices and ethics in me and my fellow newcomers. We were encouraged at all times to be honest and not to concoct stories (as reporters).
Their joint pedagogy and friendship made the after-work beer sessions with some of them unforgettable teaching sessions in establishing a useful esprit de corps. If we had done anything unprofessional or unethical we would have been unfaithful to the wonderful comradeship which was so symbiotically significant. We could not afford to do anything, write in a reprehensible manner or worse still mislead our editors into publishing a false story .
The consequences were that we would have brought the name of the paper into disrepute, the editor would be called upon to APOLOGISE; our readers would become cynical and distrustful and eventually boycott our publication. Above all, the radio and tv stations would apply their selection criteria and exclude us from their newspaper reviews on air.
But do the radio and tv stations of today have any such criteria, tried practices or professional instincts by which they monitor newspapers and if so how many of these publications full of propaganda and other scurrilous stories have been sanctioned? I have a feeling that some of the so-called editors and hosts of radio programmes have not benefitted from any basic journalism training in the ethics of the profession and therefore operate without regard to any responsibilities.
Do they, for instance, know that the public are entitled to rejoinders and that under article Ten of the GJA Code of Ethics, it is unfair for an editor or radio host to deny any individual or organisation a chance to reply? If so, why do I hear on many occasions some radio hosts insisting on having the final say. One particular station even prides itself in stating that what their team of presenters say matter more than contributions from their listeners. What vanity!
Another important DON’T which we were taught at the Daily Graphic ‘University’ was to observe scrupulously the first W-who of the five Ws and H -when, where, why and how to ensure that the sources of our stories were credible, reliable and authentic.
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Names make news, hence if a former head of state makes a pronouncement it is news indeed! But that is not the end of the story. The value or veracity of the pronouncement is even more crucial.
In order to emphasise this ethic to the young or cub reporter, the notebook or pad on which we recorded our notes or wrote our stories had CHECK, CHECK, CHECK dotted all over the margins. Long live the Sitting Next To ‘Nelly’ Training Tradition of the Daily Graphic and The Mirror!
Admittedly, times have changed and desktops and laptops are in vogue but the ethics of the profession remain the same and will continue to remain the same for a very long time to come.
Hence, if a former Head of State, Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, ‘booms’ that another former Head of State, John Agyekum Kufuor, is a thief or is corrupt, or Kennedy Agyapong charges that Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, former Chairman of NPP and his colleagues are thieves, or NDC General Secretary, Mr Asiedu Nketia, claims his predecessor, Dr Josia Ayeh, also stole some vehicles, the media have a responsibility to check, check and check again to establish the truth before publishing or reporting. In this way, apart from defamation, the media would not have allowed its columns and airwaves to be used to foment tension in the country.
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No doubt, there are exceptions, known as privileges. For instance, utterances made in Parliament, a court of justice, commissions of enquiry or similar bodies may be covered by immunity. But even here, history teaches us that it is often difficult to succeed in defence.
For lack of knowledge, our people perish. Until Justice Atuguba and his co-lords on the Supreme Court recently pronounced on Contempt of Court, it appeared many people did not know about it and therefore flouted it in ignorance. Others who knew about it but flouted it with impunity were the worst offenders. Since the Supreme Court meted out some punishments, I believe we have all become knowledgeable and wiser.
For some of us, journalism is our noble profession and we must work hard to maintain standards. Whether on a state-owned or privately-owned media, journalists should continue to learn about Sedition, Defamation, Innuendo, Libel, etc. from the many journalism text books piled up on the shelves of the libraries.
Thankfully, the Ghana Journalists Association has come a long way, from the days (mid -seventies) when even the President of the association could be insulted, threatened and eventually chased around by a Minister (Commissioner) of Information in the minister’s office. I was a witness to this incident at the Ministry of Information, as I had gone with the President to discuss the welfare of Ghanaian journalists with the Minister (Commissioner),
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Col. Parker Yarney.
From 1949, through the days of censorship, newspaper licencing regime, appointment, dismissal and transfer of journalists by the government, Press Council and the Media Commission of today, the GJA has been the umbrella organisation for all Ghanaian journalists. It has a handbook which does not only contain its constitution and bye-laws but more importantly a Code of Ethics to regulate the practice of journalism in the country. The question is with so much concern being expressed about lack of media responsibility and accountability, why is the GJA keeping mute? Is there anyone monitoring to ensure the association is playing its watchdog role?
I am cutting out a role here for the Media Commission because I would rather have the journalists themselves take a lead in trying to put their house in order. And there are so many ways in which they can do that. For example, the Daily Graphic has this brilliant column – YOUR VOICE - where a panel is interviewed for their views on selected topics. How about another panel being assembled to comment on the standard of the Ghanaian media?
The Times of London has a column where the public are invited to email their 250 word review of the day’s paper by 2pm to be published the next day. The first paragraph of a randomly selected review of October 5, 2011, by Charlotte Allen, 20, a graduate from West Sussex, was: ‘The front cover was visually very well presented and highlighted the most important stories of the day. While the front page picture was certainly unsettling, I found the picture of David Cameron rubbing his eye far more thought-provoking.’
My review of the Daily Graphic of Thursday, April 3, 2014 (randomly selected): Two human angled stories on the front cover – “woman sues hospital” and “arrest of armed robbers” - put the paper ahead of the others in discussing issues that mattered most to the public. As always, the art editor excelled with the visual presentation. What was missing was a picture of the woman who had sued. On the foreign page 5, a story on EBOLA in Nigeria, filed by XINHUA, a faraway Chinese news agency, appropriately referred to Nigeria as West African country. But when the story is being published in Ghana, the subs should have located Nigeria as a neighbouring country.
Over to you, Affail Monney and co. at the GJA. If you persist in your animated suspension, then Ambassador Kabral and his Media Commission will be pressured to step in.
P.S Just about signing off, news has come in that the Media Foundation for West Africa will soon be monitoring some Ghanaian newspapers. This is good news which the GJA must not only endorse but compliment to ensure that journalists who breach or fall foul are not only exposed but shown the yellow card.
The writer is a former GJA General Secretary.