Professor critiicises NMC’s silence after Stan Dobge’s assault on GBC reporter
A legal scholar, Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, has criticised the National Media Commission (NMC) over its public silence since it was reported nearly a month ago that a presidential aide, Mr Stan Dogbe, had assaulted a journalist and destroyed his tape recorder.
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The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) reporter, Yahaya Kwamoah, had gone to the 37 Military Hospital to report on aspects of an accident in which a member of the presidential press corps, Mr Samuel Nuamah of the Ghanaian Times, lost his life. Mr Dogbe allegedly confronted Mr Kwamoah and destroyed his recorder.
The assault is said to have been triggered by Mr Kwamoah’s alleged recording of a “private” conversation between Communications Minister Omane Boamah and Mr Dogbe, both of whom were at the Military Hospital at the time.
In a development that stunned a section of the public, the GBC declined to report what had befallen its reporter, opting to treat it as an “internal matter”.
The state broadcaster also defied calls for the police to be involved in the matter.
Commenting on the development Tuesday in an interview with Graphic Online, Prof. Prempeh questioned what he said was inaction on the part of the NMC, which he described as a body “designed by the framers of the constitution to safeguard, first and foremost, the editorial and journalistic independence of the state broadcaster and other agencies of the mass media”.
According to him, the GBC may have refrained from reporting the assault on its journalist because it was potentially embarrassing to the government.
Prof. Prempeh said: “If it appears that the state broadcaster is engaging in selective censoring out of stories that may be politically embarrassing to the government, then one must query whether the NMC has lived up to the original intention behind its establishment in the Constitution.”
“If journalists and officers of the state broadcaster are engaged in self-censorship, then it's reasonable to infer that they do not trust that the NMC is a credible protector or guarantor of their independence or career prospects with the broadcaster. In that situation, they are likely to err on the side of self-censorship in their reporting.”
Prof. Prempeh expressed worry that the NMC has gone relatively quiet in recent years, compared to the initial years of the Fourth Republic when it forcefully asserted its independence in the face of attempts at the time to subordinate it to presidential control.
He wondered whether in the intervening years the NMC had “allowed itself to be captured by the same political interests it is supposed to keep at bay.”
“So, in terms of protecting state-employed journalists, I am not sure how effectively or credibly it plays that role today. We don't even hear its voice during these times. It should at least come to the defense of the journalist and issue a reprimand against the presidential staffer,” he said.
Prof. Prempeh urged the NMC “to assert itself and be seen and heard as the protector of media, especially state media, against governmental interference.”
Mr Stan Dogbe’s assault on the GBC’s Yahaya Kwamoah has provoked a firestorm of controversy, with some members of the public calling for punitive action against him.
But the calls have so far gone unanswered by the government, prompting the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) to accuse the Mahama administration of condoning impunity “over acts of human rights violations and violations of press freedom.”