Rejoinder to Herald newspaper: “Ex-GJA boss runs from ¢15 billion case”

I was astounded, and saddened, to say the least, when my attention was drawn to your front page lead story, in the issue of Monday, December 5, 2011, with the headline “Ex -GJA Boss Runs From ¢15 Billion Case”. It was glaring evidence of yet another low for Ghanaian journalism and clearly an attempt to tarnish my image without just cause.

I was shocked not only because of the very mischievous and wicked headline, but also because you failed to state that it was as far back as August 24, 2011, that a reporter from your paper, who identified himself as Larry Dogbe, contacted me for a comment on an allegation. The allegation was that the ‘Editors Forum’ had received some money from the Ministry of Information during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government period in office to carry out propaganda on behalf of the NPP government.

I pointed out to him that the association which I chair is the ‘Editors Forum, Ghana’ (EFG) , and we have NEVER received any money from the Ministry of Information or, indeed, applied for funding from any such source. I told him that if he was referring to the 2007/2008 audit report on the Ministry of Information by the Auditor-General, it was as far back as February 24, 2010 that the EFG issued a news release denying knowledge of any such transaction.

This means that it is more than three months ago that your paper contacted me and was told emphatically that the Editors Forum, Ghana knew nothing about the “case”.

What then was your motive in publishing as “news” an obviously dead story when, as I explained to your reporter, the EFG’s widely-circulated denial, and which was also reported on the internet, was issued as far back as February 24, 2010, nearly two years ago?

Indeed, I would have ignored your ‘story’ but for two factors:

Firstly, the headline clearly sought to stain my personal integrity as well as that of the EFG, even though the facts presented in your report do not in any way support the headline’s imputation that I was “running away” from something bad that I had done.

Secondly, it is evidently becoming the practice in Ghana that every gathering or meeting of senior journalists and editors is tagged as an “Editors Forum”, even when it has nothing to do with our association, the EFG. Given your brand of journalism, in future, you might decide again to link any negative development related to one of those ‘Editors Forums’ to the EFG.

And what did you mean by “She explained that her group, (EFG) in 2010 issued a statement in February, denying its involvement with the NPP government, and benefiting that much from it (government)”?  The malicious determination to give us a bad name is clear in the phrase “that much”.

I find it interesting that although the report was a front page lead and had such a huge and brazen headline, in a clear attempt to attract sales, it had no by-line.

The EFG stands by the statement that we issued on February 24, 2010: We have never applied to the Ministry of Information, or any government body, for funding and the EFG has NEVER received any money from the Ministry of Information for propaganda or any other purpose.

We again challenge those who have the information to publish the names of the people who signed for the money under reference for the sake of transparency and avoidance of doubt. Surely, no government money is released without a paper trail, so this should not be difficult.

And, in my view, the paper trail is what you should be pursuing if you have professional or ethical concerns about the matter.

Equally importantly, from my little experience of journalistic practice, it seems to me that even if you resorted to dead news because your news desk was suffering from news famine, the obvious news angle should have been the claim that your paper’s “investigations point to a group of journalists” who were the actual “beneficiaries of the propaganda cash”. Surely, naming the beneficiaries is the news that the whole country would be interested in – and it would definitely sell your paper.

I note that your paper’s motto is “Truth Stands”. If your paper was really interested in finding out the truth, you could have gone to the Ministry of Information to investigate and find out not only those who authorised the payment, but also those who signed for the money. But maybe that would be too much work; obviously armchair investigation and rehashing dead ‘news’ make life easier for you.

Finally, if the person I spoke with on August 24 is the same as the “Larry-Alans Dogbey”, whose name appears on your paper’s imprint as the “Managing Editor”, all I can say is God help Ghanaian journalism – and Ghana.

Ajoa Yeboah-Afari (Ms)
Chairperson
Editors Forum, Ghana
Accra

Cc: Chairman, NMC
Hon Minister of Information
Chairman, Public Accounts Committee of Parliament
The Auditor-General
President, GJA
Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition
Executive Director, MFWA
President, PRINPAG