Media asked to intensify coverage of district-level elections
The Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission (NMC), Mr George Sarpong, has called on media outlets and practitioners to ensure effective coverage of the upcoming district-level elections (DLEs).
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He said the coverage of such local elections by the media would help to increase citizen’s interest in local level elections, provide them with information and enhance voter turn-out.
He was, however, worried that for years, coverage of local level elections had been extremely poor, making the local government election suffer low voter turnout.
Speaking at the launch of a project for the media monitoring of district level elections in Accra, Mr Sarpong said, “We hope to assess the qualitative and quantitative coverage of the district-level elections by the media in order to address challenges facing such elections and develop the right measures.”
The media monitoring of district- level elections is a project initiated by the NMC to encourage the media to report accurately on the activities and behavioural aspect of aspiring assembly members.
The project is being supported by the European Union (EU).
Rationale for project
Mr Sarpong said the upcoming district-level elections were scheduled for March 3, 2015.
He said the elections would help choose various district assembly members to champion the cause of development at the district level.
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He, therefore, expresssed optimism that the monitoring project would help to scientifically assess how the media would monitor the behaviour of candidates and report accurately during the event.
“The monitoring forms part of the overall strategy of the commission to improve citizens’ access to information, and improve media quality and professionalism.
The Chairman of the NMC, Mr Kabral Blay-Amihere, said it was important for the media to develop interest in the district-level election.
He also said media monitoring was vital to elections and expressed the hope that journalists would endeavour to abide by the code of ethics and show professionalism.
Besides, he said, the project also marked a defining moment for future pursuits in journalism in terms of being fair and equitable in reporting accurate issues.
Monitoring process
A media analyst and technical advisor, Mr Koshin Aden, outlined a number of processes the NMC had adopted in monitoring the elections.
He said one of the key processes of the monitoring by the NMC was the political coverage where the amount and quality of coverage of the political content of the election would be analysed.
Mr Aden also mentioned other areas to be monitored as language, especially inflammatory speeches that could cause violence.
He said the NMC also had to monitor the agenda setting, explaining that the elections had to be checked for any political party involvement during the campaign period and after the elections.