Ghana Election 2024: Ahead of Election 2024: Keep up news validator status - NMC charges Graphic

The Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission (NMC), George Sarpong, has endorsed the Daily Graphic as the validator of truth, urging it to maintain that enviable position on the media landscape.

He said it was an undeniable fact that whatever story the paper carried on its front page was considered to be the absolute truth by the other media houses in the country.

“If your banner (headline) says the thing happened, every radio station in this country will go with that, and if you say it didn’t happen, every radio station will say, indeed, it didn’t happen.

“So in this direction you remain an extremely important voice, particulary when it comes to fighting against misinformation,” he stated..

Mr Sarpong said this during an engagement with the Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Ltd (GCGL), Ato Afful, and a section of the Daily Graphic Editorial Board members, led by the Editor, Graphic, Theophilus Yartey, in Accra on Monday.

Media bias and statistical distortion

He, however, stressed the need to proactively deal with the issue of media bias and statistical distortion that are usually highlighted by international observers who cover Ghana’s elections.

“The second part is the painful reality that we see happening in every election. The international observers who come will do their monitoring and then discuss it with their other colleagues.

“The monitoring will show that the state-owned media was biased in favour of the incumbent, but there are some parts of it that are complete statistical distortion that happens in every environment where journalism is practised and I always throw it back to them,” he disclosed.

The NMC Executive Secretary said the conversation revolved around the challenges faced by the media in a country with a biased state media, focusing on the upcoming elections and the need for accurate reporting.

He emphasised the importance of disaggregating data to avoid misrepresentation and suggested that media outlets should do their own documentation to counteract false reports.

He said what usually happened was that when opposition parties levelled allegations against the incumbent, the state media tended to offer them the opportunity to respond to all those allegations, creating the impression that they were being given more coverage, which was often not the case.

“So you see, this is the statistical error that leads to the repeated accusation. So if you don’t disaggregate the data, it will look like the incumbent is getting more publicity over everybody else, which is factually incorrect.

“So one of the things that we really want to encourage you to do is to begin doing the counting yourselves as the commission has done by engaging a young man who is a specialist in counting to help with the independent monitoring and documentation of the coverage of the elections,” he said.

Constitutional obligations

Mr Sarpong said by so doing, the paper would avoid the danger of breaching Artcle 165 (11) and (12) of the Constitution which enjoined the state media to provide fair coverage for all political parties.

Media Watch App

Shedding more light on the new software application recently launched by the NMC, as well as the “Guidelines for Fair and Equitable Coverage of Political Parties by the State-owned Media” designed by his outfit, Mr Sarpong said it would safeguard Ghana's electoral integrity and ensure the safety of journalists during and after the polls.

The Media Watch App has robust and geo stamp security features that make it easier to detect misinformation and disinformation.

The evidence-based application, with almost zero human intervention, could also assist in resolving election disputes when the need arises.

He said the use of the app would enable the commission to determine the outcome of the elections midway through the release of the results.

“The way the App works, the Commission would be able to know the winner or winners of the elections midway through the release of the result. However, we will not be tempted to declare it," he said.

Mr Sarpong, who was accompanied by the Deputy Executive Secretary of the NMC, Alexander Bannerman; Benedict Asorrow and Gabriel Bosompem (NMC Commissioners), explained that the commission had assigned its staff and some other people, including civil society organisations (CSOs), to feed the app with pictures, videos and still visuals of happenings at every constituency that would be transmitted direct into its "strong room" for collation.

He said such collated results could, however, be used as a verification tool to assist the courts to address any election dispute.

"Let me assure Ghanaians that we are ready and the App is ready," he said.

Security

He was equally confident that the robust nature of the application made infiltration of fake news impossible.

"The security features are such that it will be impossible for anyone to feed it with fake information," he assured.

Attack on journalists

The commission also plans to share videos and pictures of any attack on journalists with nearby police stations for the perpetrators to be apprehended and brought to book.

Mr Sarpong said the NMC was also in talks with the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to be able to provide immediate health care for any affected journalist during any eventuality.

In the same vein, he revealed that the commission was also working out a policy with the National Insurance Commission (NIC) for additional support.

He, however, commended the Daily Graphic for standing by the constitutional mandate of providing "fair and equitable coverage for all dissenting opinions" in accordance with the provisions of the 1992 Constitution.

For his part, Mr Yartey assured the NMC of Daily Graphic’s stance to always choose "perfection over speed."

He said as Ghana's leading newspaper, the Daily Graphic would continue to seek the interest of the nation over anyone's parochial interest and be fair to everybody.

He said contrary to what some Ghanaians term as a make or break election, he believed that "this is just another normal election".

Mr Yartey said the paper was always working to be ahead of other news outlets due to the challenge of choice.

He disclosed that the Inspector General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, was counting on the Daily Graphic to deal with the issue of misinformation, and gave an assurance that the paper was ready to live up to expectation.

He seized the opportunity to calm the nerves of Ghanaians by stressing that the "temperature" of the country would be normal during and after the elections.