"The primary purpose of gathering and distributing news and opinion is to serve the general welfare by informing the people and enabling them to make judgments on the issues of the time.
Newspaper men and women who abuse the power of their professional role for selfish motives or unworthy purposes are faithless to that public trust".
American Society of Editors.
"Public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy.
The duty of the journalist is to further those ends in seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues.
Conscientious journalists from all the media and specialists strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty.
Professional integrity is the cornerstone of a journalist’s credibility". Preamble, Code of Ethics, Society of Professional Journalists.
In the early days of our exiting from the military regime of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) into the Fourth Republic, as News Editor of the Daily Graphic, I issued a memorandum to our journalists that under the new liberal environment of the 1992 Constitution, we were to move away from the sole sourcing of stories, "he said he said", into an era of multisourcing and analysis of our reports to ensure that we reflected dissent and diversity in our coverage as was done in other jurisdictions where whatever programmes that the government introduced or statements issued, there would be reactions from opposition political parties or people who had knowledge and could support or oppose the issues.
I was guarded by some of the things that happened under the PNDC, where sometimes reports by journalists were replaced by stories written from the Castle, but the reporters were retained as the source of the news, although they were never aware of the sources of the published stories.
Even as News Editor, I became aware of the changes the next morning when I received a copy of the publication.
I knew about the provision under Article 162 (5) that " All agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the principles, provisions and objectives of this Constitution and shall uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people of Ghana" as well as Article 164 which states that " All state-owned media shall afford fair opportunities and facilities for the presentation of divergent views and dissenting opinions".
But an even more convincing source for my desire to ensure balanced, fair and responsible journalistic practice at Graphic was a profound statement made by Mrs Indira Gandhi, at the First Non-Aligned Movement Conference on Media in New Delhi, India, that " An event does not cease to be an event because the media ignore it. Nor do the personalities and events covered by the media necessarily leave any marks on history".
A call
Within an hour after distributing the memo to staff, I had a call from Mr P.V. Obeng, who spoke to me in Twi, " Yaw, yese afei dee, wose se yekasa a, mmema mo mfii yen" literally translating as " Yaw, we have been told that you have asked your journalists not to mind us when we speak" compelling me to explain matters to him to ensure that they did not develop unjustified hatred against me and also to enable them to appreciate the journalistic perspective justifying my position under provisions of the constitution.
What has prompted this write-up is the recent crash of the software that has guided and guarded the digital integrated operations of the National Health Insurance Scheme and the attempt, supposedly under the instructions of two NDC MPs in the Ahafo Region — Collins Dauda (Asutifi South) and Ebenezer Kwaku Addo (Asutifi North) — to undermine the arduous work of the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat to stem the devastating menace.
In these two matters, the media must do more than enough to ensure that we are not denied justice, although it is possible that at the end of the day, even when culpability is established beyond all manner of doubt, the Attorney-General could enter nolle prosequi and allow deviants and miscreants to walk free because of partisan considerations.
With the case of the breakdown of the electronic database of the NHIA, the Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has indicated that the contract for the service provider expired at the end of last year. If the issue was seen as urgent as the crash has unleashed, what have we done since January 8, 2025, or is it that, as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Health, Dr Bayuo intimated, because the NDC, which invited the Indian company to pilot the project in 2016, was not happy with the output, the government predetermined not to renew the contract but to bulldoze its way to take over the project, that is why there were no talks until the crash?
Did no one look at the terms of the contract to protect our interests for the 10 months overrun before the crash?
Was the contract signed by the previous administration a complete sellout of dignity for food as an Esau and Jacob relation?
It is a fact that numbers could be analysed in absolute figures or percentages in measurement to determine efficiency and effectiveness, since the units of objects are not the same, which standard is more objective?
Whilst this could be dialetic, what about the claim by the Minister that the new company is state-owned, as against the information that bids are yet to be opened for a new service provider and the assertion by the former Minister of Health, Nii Oko Boye, that the new company is owned by Mr Akandoh?
Between Mr Akandoh and Dr Oko Boye, with one claiming that only 450 out of about 950 had been connected and the other stating that more than 80 per cent of the job has been done, who is the pessimist or optimist, since both are talking about facts that must be in the public domain?
Now, about the unjustified and bestial mob attack on the NAIMOS team, who instigated the mob of party supporters to attack the conscientious and nationalistic loyal security personnel, who could have been gruesomely murdered just as it happened to the hapless but innocent, dignified and noble Major Mahama.
My concern and interest are not about who is right or liable, nor who is guilty or innocent but that we in the media must take up the cause to find out the true state of affairs in both circumstances, such that justice will be served since in the view of Dr Martin Luther King, " an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".
We must not let it rot as the usual political diatribe.
The IGP must be encouraged to thoroughly investigate the allegation that two honourable Members of Parliament acted so dishonourably in conspiring to subvert the cause of our people and nation, which could have ended in murder. Under the previous regime, a District Chief Executive was detained by the police over a missing excavator, over allegations as to whether the police or the DCE was responsible for the loss of the exhibit against galamsey.
Whilst all those involved in the dastardly act deserve their just punishment, they should not be sacrificed to cover up the brains behind the conspiracy and the act, just as we have failed to arrest the kingpins and financiers of galamsey but continue to punish those who foolishly offer their services to degrade our forests and water bodies in the name of making a living.
