Ghana media coverage of corruption weak – study
A monitoring of the media’s reportage on corruption in the country has emphasised its weak capacity in investigating institutional and systemic cases of the phenomenon.
Conducted by the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), the research, titled, “Media coverage on corruption, transparency and accountability study”, also found a prevalence of reports on corruption scandals devoted to highly placed political officials.
At a dissemination workshop to share findings with the media in Accra yesterday, all the resource persons were unanimous in emphasising the critical role of the media in the anti-corruption campaign.
The Editor of the Daily Dispatch, Mr Ben Ephson, who chaired the function, said the public, in some instances, trusted the media, more than the Police Service, with information on corruption.
That put the media in a privileged position to collaborate with anti-corruption institutions in the campaign, he said.
He cautioned journalists, however, to be careful in their campaign against corruption in order not be used as instruments of blackmail by some people against their opponents.
He was displeased with the implementation of the Whistle Blowers’ Act, as in some instances informants had been “given up” by the very state that was to protect them.
He also felt deterrent measures in the country’s law were lenient and a disincentive for honesty in public life.
The Executive Secretary of GACC, Mrs Florence Dennis, said the rationale for the study was to provide an assessment and review of the media’s role in the fight against corruption and create a database for media reportage on corruption, among other reasons.
She said the study, conducted from January to June 2010, was a sequel to a similar one undertaken in 2009, saying the two provided a comparative basis for analysing the media’s work on corruption.
She, however, conceded the limitations of the study, citing inadequate funding that did not enable the GACC to expand the study to include television coverage of corruption.
She urged donors to make long-term commitments to the exercise of reviewing and accessing the media’s role in the anti-corruption campaign for a “sustained and desired impact”.
Mr Sulemana Braimah of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), who presented the highlights of the study, said comparatively, follow-ups on issues of corruption increased from one in 2009 to 15 in 2010, while investigative articles saw a drop of seven from 27 in 2009 to 10 in 2010, with straight news stories sourced from single persons dominating the articles analysed.
Online news streams also had a dominance of corruption stories and he explained that that might have been due to the fact that most of the stories were culled from radio stations or newspapers.
Some recommendations of the study were the need for the continued building of the capacity of editors and journalists in anti-corruption reporting and the need for emphasis on investigative journalism and analytical reporting.
Source: Daily Graphic