Some Veteran Ghanaian Journalists have opposed proposals to give the National Media Commission, NMC powers of the High Court to sanitise the media landscape because “it is dangerous for the media.”
The journalists said such powers could be used as a tool to control the media and erode the hard-fought strides chalked up in safeguarding the independence of the media under the 4th Republic.
Making individual contributions at a seminar organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs on “Reviewing Ghana’s 1992 Constitution”, the journalists said the freedom enjoyed by the media did not come by chance and should not be taken for granted.
The Speakers at the event were Writer and Former Chairman of the NMC, Kabral Blay-Amihere, Journalist and communications consultant, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo, Editor of the ‘Insight’ Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, and Chairman of the NMC, Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafo.
Mr Blay-Amihere said the NMC is not constitutionally designed to control the media, explaining that “the framers of the Constitution did not want a situation where the Country would return to the bad old days.”
He said the Constitution however placed some limitations on the liberty of the media as a measure to make the media responsible.
He said he will never support ”making the NMC another tool for oppression”, adding that the ”mediation tool deployed by the Commission had been useful in resolving grievances.
Mr Pratt said many Journalists have been tortured and some lost their lives just by expressing their views in the past and cautioned that any attempt to offer a regulator the powers to “control” the work of the media should be resisted by media practitioners.
Mr. Kweku Sakyi-Addo said many young people failed to appreciate how far the media had evolved and the source of the freedom enjoyed by journalists today.
He said the Court should remain the ideal quarters for aggrieved individuals to seek legal redress if they did not want to go to the NMC for amicable resolution.
Mr Boadu-Ayeboafo said it is important for the NMC and media outlets to adopt dialogue and mediation as an effective tool to resolve grievances.
He said the Press Council Concept should be able to bring people together, adding that ”It is not about control but facilitation from both sides so that the people in the media will tone down”.