Media urged to refrain from inflammatory reportage
Speakers at a one-day workshop in Accra have asked media practitioners to refrain from inflammatory reportage that could trigger violence as the country heads to the polls this year.
Advertisement
In separate statements, they urged the media to remain neutral in the political discourse and to also adhere to professionalism in order not to throw the country into a state of insecurity.
The workshop was held under the auspices of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre (KAIPC). It was planned to build the capacity of media personnel on ways of reporting accurately so that the security of the country is not compromised in the run-up to this year’s general election.
The workshop was on the theme:” Towards Peaceful Elections: Reporting on Elections and Security in 2016.”
In attendance were journalists from various media outlets, top officers of the Electoral Commission (EC), security experts and personnel from the security services.
Media plays critical role
The Chairman of the EC, Mrs Charlotte Osei, observed that the media was an indispensable stakeholder in democratic governance and for that matter it had a critical role to play in the successful conduct of the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.
In that light, she said the situation where some media houses thrived on partisan and sensational reports was harmful to peaceful political discourse.
“Politicians need space to be able to put out their messages across to the public. The EC as well needs space to educate the public on electoral processes, but at the centre of it all is the media. The media play a coordinating role to make sure that voters make informed decisions. The media owes society a duty to be transparent in their reportage without allowing themselves to be used by politicians to create violence,” she said.
Other Trending Stories
Professionalism
For his part, the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Roland Affail Monney, urged the media to live above reproach. He stated that reporting negatively had dire consequences on national peace, stability and security.
He further urged media owners and journalists to refrain from picking inflammatory news angles, since such reportage had the tendency to plunge the country into chaos.
No hate speech
The Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs and Research at KAIPC, Dr Kwesi Aning, observed that verbal abuses and intemperate language marred the beauty of the political process.
In that regard, he said it was unacceptable for media organisations to give space to politicians who made unguarded utterances.
He said it was the responsibility of the media to put mechanisms in place to ensure that hate speech by politicians and other actors did not get to the public domain.
The President of the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), Mr Akwasi Agyemang, urged media personnel to refrain from using sensational headlines and over-reliance on negative aspects of situations.
He said the media should be a binding force for society.