UNIVERSITY
OF GHANA
MA
Public Affairs
TERM
PAPER 1
Topic: The Press and human rights
in Ghana: The case of the Ghanaian Times (2009-2012)
Name of student: George Asekere
Student ID: 10289946
Date: 20th August, 2013.
Supervisor: Mr. Kwame Asah-Asante
|
CHAPTER ONE.
INTRODUCTION.
After
20 years of democratic governance, many are still wondering whether the
Ghanaian press truly has the freedom to operate in all spheres of national life
including the right of the pressmen to freely express their opinion on issues
of human rights. Again questions are being asked if the press has been able to
educate and inform the people about their rights and whether they even make
human rights issues pivotal in their reportage.
It
is also argued that until the repeal of the criminal libel and seditious laws
under the regime of John Agyekum Kufuor (President of Ghana 2000-2008) fear and
intimidation made it practically difficult for journalists to exercise their
right to operate fully let alone educate and inform the people of their rights.
Also, the press was gagged during the military rule thereby making it very
difficult to freely operate.
According to Gymah-Boadi, the PNDC government
under J.J.Rawlings silenced all independent newspapers which were on the stands
on the eve of the 31st December coup d’ etat. He argued that during
that era, journalists that were critical of the government of the day suffered
abuses of all kinds including, imprisonment, torture, verbal abuse and
destruction of equipment. Some media houses were banned. Examples include the
Post, the Catholic Standard, the Palaver, Punch, Echo, Direction and the Workers
Banner.
The
press plays a crucial role in deepening democracy in Ghana through criticism of
government and abuse of human rights. Gadzakpo wondered how meaningful
development in Africa will be if there is no critical press to curtail
undemocratic behaviour. She expressed regret that when the press exposes
corruption, incompetence and waste, they are usually pegged as adversarial.
This function should enable the media to contribute their quota towards
ensuring effective, transparent and accountable governance. She held that for
the press to be able to live up to its social responsibility, it is incumbent
upon it not only to inform the people about government programmes and policies
but also criticize it. Gadzekpo stressed
the need for the press to lead the crusade against corruption as well as
injustices that have bedevilled society. This assertion further consolidates
the argument that the press plays a crucial role in development hence any
intimidation on the press has a riffle effect on development.
According
to Kofi Ansah in Asa Asante the press both public and private especially the state-owned,
can play their role of educating, informing and entertaining effectively when
they are free. According to him, the inability of the press to operate freely
since the country attained independence was partly because of external pressure
usually emanating from government. This development led to the establishment of
the Press Commission in 1979 to insulate the state-owned media, which have the
widest circulation and reach from government control so that they could become
the Fourth Estate.
STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM:
The
1992 Constitution (Government of Ghana 1992) devotes a full chapter to freedom
and independence of the media. The constitution makes it explicitly clear that
there shall be no interference from external forces including government
agencies. In fact, the constitution says that nobody shall determine the
editorial opinion of editors. Also it says that editors and journalists shall
not be harassed or intimidated for their editorial opinion.
Again
the criminal libel and seditious laws are no more in our statutes books. Also
civil society groups now value the crucial role of the media in nation building
and have continuously given its support to freedom of the press. The same can
be said of the Ghana Trades Union Congress, TUC. In fact, the TUC has always
indicated its preparedness to work with the Ghana Journalists Association in
its unionization drive to ensure that journalists in Ghana have the opportunity
to bargain for better working conditions. This issue was stressed by the
Secretary General of the TUC, Mr. Kofi Asamoah at the 2012 GJA Awards ceremony.
(gbcghana.com)
Also the government of Ghana in its effort to
enhance the performance of the media through on- the- job training of
practising journalists instituted the Media Development Fund in 2012 as a
monetary support to the media. This Fund according, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills
(President of the Republic of Ghana 2008-20012) when he presented the State of
the Nation Address to Parliament in 2012, serves to equip journalists on their rights
and responsibilities in order not to be used as stooges by influential people
in society.
Additionally,
one of the nine Justices that sat on the 2012 presidential election petition at
the Supreme Court Justice, Jones Dotse, on July 2 2013 made it clear that the highest court of the
land fully supports freedom of the media and that it will be the last to gag
journalists in their work. This comment was carried live by national radio and
television as well as many private radio and television stations.
Given
the importance of the press to the promotion and protection of human rights in
Ghana, it is very important to determine whether the press who are suppose to be
the watchdogs of all facets of society including human rights give adequate
coverage to human rights issues in terms of frequency, consistency, prominence
and even content.
One
may argue that in the past the press were not able to promote and defend human
rights because of military dictatorship. Today the story is different. The
question then is: has the press been able to give adequate coverage to human
rights stories? The Ghanaian Times news
paper is one of the widely circulated and credible state owned newspapers in
the country. It is therefore vitally relevant to assess the coverage of human
rights issues by the Ghanaian Times in the last three years beginning from
2010. One may therefore ask the following questions:
1.
Have human rights stories attracted
front page coverage in the press?
2.
Does the content of front page stories
relate to issues that border on human rights:
These
are some of the questions that this work seeks to find answers to.
Objective of the study.
The
objective of this study is to highlight the fact that although there are laws
that protect journalists in carrying out their watchdog role of society, the
media in Ghana has not had that freedom they need to fully operate well. As a
result of this the media has not highlighted a lot on human rights. The press
has also not made human rights issues a major priority. To arrive at this claim
the study analysed the front page stories from 2010 to 2012. In so doing the
study looked at the number of times that the Ghanaian Times newspaper reported
on issues that dealt on human rights on its front pages.
Justification for choosing the
Ghanaian Times Newspaper.
The
Ghanaian Times is noted to be one of Ghana’s most credible newspapers wholly
owned by the state. Although it has an enterprise dimension just like any other
state owned enterprise in Ghana, the Ghanaian Times which is published by the
New Times Corporation is neither profit oriented nor ideologically inclined.
Based on this the paper has not meddled in propagandist publications since 1992
although there has been what Samuel Huntington calls two turn over test’ in
Ghana body politic- a practice whereby an incumbent governing party loses
election to an opposition party who after sometime in power also loses election
without seeing the need to use undemocratic means to destabilise the system..
Outline of the study.
The
study is made up of three main parts. The first chapter is the introduction
which dealt with the rights of media practitioners, the laws that guarantee
those rights, how the media has really performed in both the time of no freedom
and also during the time of freedom and constitutional rule. It also looked at the statement of the
research problem. Chapter two which is summary of the study and presents the
methods used the observations and discussions. Chapter three which is the final
chapter looked at the conclusion and recommendation of the work.
The
next stage will focus on a review of literature. It will be in two parts. The
first will be studies on the press and the second will be studies on human
rights.
STUDIES ON THE PRESS
According
to Asah-Asante the term press refers to the print media that is newspapers and
magazines. On the other hand the term media refers to both the press and other
mediums of communication such as television, radio, and cinema.
The
press plays a very vital role in the circulation of knowledge and information
on virtually every subject from zoology to medicine and archaeology. According
to Phillips DP(1991) efficient, undistorted communication of the results of
medical research is very important to physicians, the entire scientific
community and the general public. He asserts that information that first appears
in the scientific literature is frequently retransmitted in the popular press.
This role of the press he noted has contributed significantly to the work of
scientist and the general public.
According
to (Sanbrook, 1996:p70) it is difficult for anyone to conceive of any
consolidated democracy which does not take cognisance of a vibrant press and a
strong party communication system. He argued that since the 17th
century scholars have tried to justify the positive relationship between the
press and democratic practices. Arguing in favour of this assertion by
Sandbrook, a democratic theorist Milton asserted that a free press promotes the
cause of democracy by performing watchdog functions over governments, and
through this role the press prevents governments from appropriating to
themselves excessive power with which they may use to abuse the people and the
political system. Gurevtch and Blumler
held the view that the media performs the functions suggested by Milton, by
monitoring the activities of governments and taking them to task for any
transgressing. They state that classical liberals are of the view that without
this function of the press and free speech, it will be difficult to sustain
Liberty, Property, true Religion, Arts, Science, Learning and Knowledge.
Meiklejohn
(1960) argued that democracy the world over is based on the notion of what he
calls ‘popular sovereignty’. He said that this notion requires that the
citizens are properly informed to enable them to participate in the political
process and thus contribute their quota to decision making. Meiklejohn said it
takes a free and vibrant press to enable citizens to have access to variegated
view of issues on the basis on which they can intend make informed political
decision. He stated that apart from a free press enabling people to express
different views and make different claims, it also provides the avenue for such
views to be subjected to serious contestations. This according to Meiklejohn
increases the chances for truth to emerge and to shape politics.
In
the view of Masmoundi (1992:p34), the connection between democracy and the
media is manifested in the opportunity that a free press provides for citizens
to influence the political process. To him, democratic media enable political
leaders to be aware of the mood of society so that they can respond
appropriately. He liked the press to the mirror which he argued reflects the
general orientation of political life and the microscope which allows citizens
to pay attention to different national activities and by expressing their opinion,
contribute to the nation building process. Based on these perspectives on the
relationship between the media and democracy, Masmoundi, contends that most of
the new constitutions in Africa made provisions for freedom of expression and
the press. He said the Ghanaian Constitution ( Government of Ghana 1992) for instance states in section 3 and 4 of
Article 162 that:
There
shall be no impediments to the establishment of private press or media; and in
particular that there shall be no law requiring any person to obtain a licence
as a prerequisite to the establishment or operation of a newspaper, journal or
other media for mass communication or information
Section
4 states that editors and publishers of newspapers shall not be subject to the
control of anyone including government. Also they shall not be punished or
harassed for their editorial opinion and views or even the content of their
publications.
Also
Article 26 of the Togolese Constitution provides that ‘it shall not be possible
to submit the press to preliminary authority, to bail, to censure or to other
impediments’. It adds that only a judicial decision can prevent the circulation
of a publication.
According
to Masmoundi, the Cameroonian government was compelled, under pressure from
pro-democracy activists, to repeal its censorship laws in January 1996. He said
the Freedom of Mass Communication Law abrogated the censorship of previous
years, under which editors in Cameroon were obligated to lodge copies of their
publications with the government before circulating them to the larger public.
He submits that as a result of these constitutional changes, there has been an
appreciable change in the African media landscape with many private and
independent presses operating in the Continent.
Zaffiro
(1993:p7) admits that the press has emerged as one of the most significant
avenues for expressing democratic issues as well as criticism of authoritarian
rules. He contends that this forum has provided the opportunity for voices that
would otherwise have been unknown to be heard.
Zaffiro states that the activities of the press has led to practical
reforms in many countries in Africa in the late 1980s and also the re-emergence
of independent press which has further accelerated the pace of democratic reforms in the
continent. He for instance attributes the emergence of an atmosphere of
democratic fervour in Cameroon in the early 1990s to the coverage given to
incidents of authoritarian excesses visited on pro-democracy activists by the
Paul Biya regime. Also he argued that the transition to multi- party democratic
rule in Tanzania was occasioned mainly by the pages of the then newly
established independent newspaper- ‘and these were politely worded rational
arguments from the pens of academics and lawyers’.
Zaffiro
again argued that the press has been very active in exposing activities within
the state that would otherwise remain hidden. Through this work of the press
the people are able to measure the pronouncement of politicians and measure it against
their deeds and hence make informed judgement about the political future of
those individuals. According to him the likelihood of exposure is also
necessary in, at least, making government officials more circumspect in
whatever they do. He believes this role of the press has led to what he terms’
a certain measure of imposed accountability on the part of these officials
which they did not have to worry about in the past’.
Additionally
Zaffiro stated that the press has taken the lead in setting the agenda for
various investigative bodies to take up cases of alleged corruption, abuse of
human rights and excess in the state apparatus. He quoted a journalist from
Cameroon has having said ‘that the press is thus like a house-fly: it has the
habit of being around when things starts stinking’.
Whilst
acknowledging the vital role of the press in democratization, it must be said
that the press has a lot of challenges that militate against its smooth
operations. Sandbrook (1996:p70) argued that ‘Africa’s harsh conditions, legacies
and conjectural factors’ impede the work of the press. He maintained that
despite the crucial role the press plays in nation building, a lot of
governments in the continent continue to impose judicial and extra judicial
barriers on journalists and media houses, in a manner that which defeats the
professed goals of democratic governance and the brain behind the
constitutional provisions and other measures that seek to ensure press freedom.
Sandbrook cited some of the things that are inimical to smooth operation of the
press in Africa as continued existence of anachronistic laws on libel and
sedition, censorship, physical harassment of journalists and attacks on their
premises and destruction of their equipment, denying them access to inputs and
audiences as well as debilitating laws
According
to Freedom House, Africa had only 6 free press nations as at 1998, 17 that were
partly free and 29 that were not free at the time. The criterion for
determining whether a media outlet is allowed to operate freely without of
state intimidation is, therefore, not
the constitutional provision of freedom of expression or freedom of the press
or even the variety of its reporting. According to Freedom House, the
parameters used in determining whether a press outlet is free or not continue
to be determined by how well the contents of that particular press portray power brokers in a positive or, at
least, neutral light. It added that where these state or regime defined
criteria are not obeyed; the full wrath of the repressive apparatus is visited on targeted journalists
or press house. These unhealthy developments are taking place even though there
are legal channels for addressing of unsubstantiated or libellous publications
in the press. According to Freedom House, even though President Chiluba in
Zambia promised ‘that the press shall no longer be stifled again’ his
government took drastic actions against the Post newspaper for doing a story
that compared the activities of the Zambia army to those of Angola. The
newspaper was besieged by paramilitary police who vandalized the papers’
offices and arrested the journalists and almost the entire editorial staff,
placed them into police custody without any arrest warrant.
McFarland cited, Fox, 2007;Przeworski, 2003; Przeworski
et al.,1999; O’Donnell, 1999; Schedler, 1999) all agreed that in democracies,
the convention is that accountability mechanisms, whether horizontal, vertical
or social are designed to ensure that public services address the needs of
citizens in an equitable way by empowering citizens to demand accountability
from government. They held that the citizens can only demand accountability if
they are aware of their rights which are partly the responsibility of the
press.
Sam McFarland & Melissa Mathews (2006
p365) argued is that the democratic development of a specific society implies
the pluralism of ideas and conceptions about the world and life, about social
organization, about the relations between the members of the society. As social
beings, they added, people need to receive ideas and information and to
express, in any form possible, their own ideas and conceptions. That is why the
right to freedom of expression and implicitly the freedom of press is a
component guaranteed by the international legal documents in the matters of
human rights. The freedom of expression or freedom of speech is considered to
be the most powerful weapon for the defence of the persons’ rights and liberties
against the anti-democratic manifestations. They are of the opinion that
freedom of expression is settled both in the reference international legal
documents in the matter of human rights, and in the Constitutions of the
individual states. From the regulations comprised in the international legal
instruments in the matter of human rights, and from the dispositions contained
in the constitutions of certain countries, one remarks that freedom of
expression is designated by means of different denominations. Daniela Valeria (2006) argued: “one cannot conceive progress in the scientific, cultural or artistic domains
without the existence of freedom of expression beyond any state frontier…”
She
contends that the media is supposed to set the agenda on issues that are
paramount and capable of transforming the lives of the citizenry. The issues
could cover every facet of national live. For the purpose of this work I limit
the agenda setting role of the media to human rights and further limit the
media to the print media by singling out the State Owned Ghana Times newspaper
printed and published the New Times Corporation in Ghana’s capital, Accra. My
argument is that if the agenda setter is not free or put differently has not
got the absolute freedom to express his or her professional right to publish
stories he or she deem fit for national consumption bearing in mind the
limitations especially when it comes to public morality and national security,
it may be difficult for the journalist to focus so much on human rights issues.
In 2002, when attacks on members of the press appeared alarming, the
President of the Ghana Journalist Association GJA, Ransford Tetteh issued a
strong worded statement to the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Paul Tawiah
Quaye to talk to his men to desist from attacking members of the press. This
followed an attack on the chairman of the Volta regional branch of the GJA.
Mr.Tetteh urged the Inspector General of Police to ensure that investigations
are carried out to ascertain why the Police in Ho assaulted the Regional
Chairman of the GJA on Sunday, June 10, 2012. He expressed are shock at the
impunity and the level of group assault that was carried out by the police
against Mr Kwawukume, who is a correspondent of the Daily Graphic newspaper, in
his line of duty. This noted was without prejudice to what would be the outcome
of the investigations.
The GJA President’s statement said the association also noted with
concern the incidence of the Police inviting editors to disclose their sources
of information and referred to two recent cases. It said the first involved the
editor of the Chronicle and the second involved the editor of the New Crusading
Guide, who were both invited to disclose
how they “intercepted” the statements made by one Mr. Agbesi Woyome to the
Police concerning some payment of judgment debts to him by the state.
According to Mr.Tetteh people’s right to know required the media to as
much as possible, truthfully inform and educate members of the public on
incidents or issues, whether positive or negative, happening around
them.
He maintained that even when journalists erred in their work and their
infractions were considered intolerable there could be no justification for one
to either physically or verbally attack them or resort to unconstitutional
means to seek redress.
The truth is that these attacks took place at a time the press in
Ghanaians believed to be enjoying maximum freedom. These assaults were in
breach of Article 162 (4) of the 1992 Constitution (Government of Ghana 1992)
which states unequivocally that “editors and publishers of newspapers and other
institutions of the mass media shall not be subject to control or interference
by Government, nor shall they be penalized or harassed for their editorial opinion
and views, or the content of their publications.
STUDIES ON HUMAN RIGHTS
The 7th edition of the Oxford Advanced Learners
Dictionary-International Students Edition- defined human right as one of the
basic rights that everyone has to be treated fairly and not in a cruel way,
especially their governments.
According to Amartya Sen (2005) there are many human rights that can be
viewed as rights to particular capabilities. He argued however that, human
rights and freedom cannot be sufficiently analysed within the capability
framework. To him, both human rights and capabilities are dependent on public
reasoning. He contended that the moral appeal of human rights has been used for
different purposes, from strongly resisting torture and arbitrary incarceration
to demanding the end of hunger and the neglect of medical care. He states that
there is no country in the world-from China, South Africa and Egypt to Mexico,
Britain and the United States-in which debates about human rights have been
raised in one context or another in contemporary political debates.
Sen argued that despite the
enormous appeals of the idea of human rights, it is also noted by many as being
intellectually frail-lacking in foundation and perhaps even in coherence and
cogency. According to him the American Declaration of
Independence took it to be ‘self-evident’ that everyone
is ‘‘endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights’. And
13 years later, in 1789, the French declaration of ‘the rights of man’ asserted
that ‘‘men are born and remain free and equal in rights’’. ‘’But it did not
take Jeremy Bentham long to insist, in Anarchical Fallacies, written
during 1791–1792, that ‘‘natural rights is simple nonsense: rhetorical nonsense.
I
believe there are many ordinary people who hold different views on what
constitute human right and what does not depending on their culture, religion,
environment or level of education.
In Ghana the constitution devotes a full chapter to the promotion and
protection of human rights (Government of Ghana 1992) it states for instance
that no one shall deprived of his or her life intentionally except a court
decision. It further states the following:
1.
Every person shall be entitled to his
personal liberty
2.
A person arrested, detained, restricted
shall be informed immediately; in a language that he understands, of the reason
for the arrest, restriction or detention.
3.
The dignity of every person shall be
inviolable; thus no person shall be subjected to tortured, or other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
4.
No person shall be held in slavery or
servitude
5.
All persons shall be equal before the
law.
6.
Every person has the right to own
property either alone or in association with other persons.
7.
A person charged with criminal offence
shall be given a fair hearing within a reasonable time by a court.
8.
The trial of a person charged with a
criminal offence shall take place in his presence unless under certain
situations that may necessitate trial in his or her absence
9.
No property of any description, or
interest in or right over any property shall be compulsorily taken possession
of or acquired by the State under conditions that borders of the defence of the
State or in the larger interest of the larger society.
10.
All persons shall have the right to:
freedom of speech and expression; freedom of thoughts, conscience and believe,
freedom of association; freedom of movement and academic freedom.
11.
Other rights enshrined in the
constitution include the right to education, children’s rights to care by its
natural parents except under conditions beyond the control of its natural
parents including death.
There other rights of human beings that the
constitution of the Republic of Ghana protects.
Through resolution 217A (111) of 10th December
1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It states the following among many
others:
1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are
endowed with
reason
and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood
2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration,
without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion, national or
social origin, property, birth or other status. It adds that, no distinction
shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or
international status of the country or territory to which a
person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing
or
under any other limitation.
3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall
be prohibited in all their forms.
5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or
punishment.
6. Everyone has the right to recognition
everywhere as a person before the law.
7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to
equal protection
of
the law.
8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national
tribunals for acts
violating
the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary
arrest, detention or exile.
10. Everyone is entitled in full equality to a
fair and public hearing by an independent and
impartial
tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any
criminal
charges
against him.
Despite great advances in human rights since
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the United
Nations in 1948, the gaps between the UDHR's ideals and current world realities
remain massive. Non de-democratic governments, ancient enmities, religious
orthodoxies, and cultural traditions all impede the advance of human rights in
many places. According to the UN, democratic governments that avow allegiance
to human rights often find that protecting human rights abroad conflicts with
their national self-interests and, in situations of grave human rights abuses,
risks the lives of their own citizen soldiers.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:
This
work is premised on the Social Responsibility Theory. According to this theory
the media upholds free expression and press freedom. But press freedom is not
absolute: it imposes the obligation to adequately represent all shades of
political and social opinion as fairly as possible so that the public may
decide. According to this theory, the media has the right to criticize
government and other institutions; it own it a duty to preserve democracy by
properly informing the public as well as responding to society’s interest and
needs.
Beside
the theory contends that society and the public have the right to expect a high
standard of performance in the interest of the public. Failure on the part of
the press in this regard offers justification for any agency of the public to interfere
to secure the public good. That is to make the press recognize and fulfil its
social responsibility.
From
this theory, one can conclude that the press has the duty to report on all
issues that affect human lives including issues on human rights. Also society
has a responsibility of helping the press to perform its function for the good
of both. The press therefore ought to give priority to human rights stories
just like any other stories
CHAPTER TWO
METHODOLOGY/ FINDINGS
This
work relied on secondary data by examining the Ghanaian Times Publications on
Human Rights between 2010 and 2012. It also relied on interviews by the
President of the Ghana Journalists Association on his take on the state of the
Ghanaian Press and Human Rights.
The
years 2010, 2011 and 2012 were chosen because 2012 was an election year where I
believe a lot of human right issues were raised by politicians, civil society
groups and other stakeholders. The two other years were chosen because they
proceeded the election year so one would expect some consistency on the part of
the authoritative actors as the nation prepared for the 2012 election. The
State owned Ghanaian Times was chosen mainly because it is a state paper not
motivated by profit or parochial political or ideological interest although I
acknowledge that there is an enterprise dimension in the work of the paper.
Analysis
The
work looked at human rights stories that appeared on the front pages of the
Ghanaian Times newspaper between 2010 and 2012. For the purpose of this
analysis human right stories refer to stories that talked about human rights in
the areas of abuse, murder, torture, forced marriages, rape, incest, abuses by
security personal as well as reports on what officialdom said they were doing
about human rights and personal initiative by journalists to educate people on
their rights. It simply counted the number of human right stories done by the
paper monthly over the three year period on its front pages.
FINDINGS
The
study found out that between January 2010 and December 2012, human rights
stories were not given enough publicity in the front pages of the Ghanaians
Times newspaper.
YEAR 2010:
In
2010 only 35 human interest stories appeared on the front pages of the Ghanaian
Times newspaper. The study observed that March, June, October and November recorded
the highest number of human interest stories on the paper’s front page with
four stories each in those four months. February, May, July and August had only
two human rights stories in the papers front pages.
YEAR 2011:
The
study found out that in 2011, the paper published 71 stories on human rights in
its front pages which were about twice what it did in 2010. August 2011
recorded the highest of 11 front page stories on human rights. It was followed
by November with 10 stories, July with 9 stories; March recorded 8 stories
followed by June with 7 stories. September recorded the lower figure of only
two human right stories in the paper’s font page
YEAR 2012:
In
2012, there was a further improvement of stories on human rights published on
the front pages of the Ghanaian Times. The year recorded 77 stories which were
greater than the 2011 figure of 71. In May 2012, 14 human rights stories were
able to attract front pages of the paper followed by 11 in December, 9 in
November and June, 8 in April, 7 in September, 6 in October, 5in January, 3 in
August, 2 each in February and March. July 2012 recorded only one human right
story on the paper’s front page.
It
was further observed that human right stories kept increasing year by year even
though one would have expected a greater increase. From 35 in 2010, it
increased to 71 in 2011 and then to 77 in 2012.
It
was observed also that there could be three weeks in a month without the paper
doing any story on human rights.
The
study also found that most of the human interest stories came from the areas of
forced marriages, abuses meted out on people by security personnel mainly the
police, murder, rape, court pronouncements and government officials comments on
human rights as well as what is being done by the state to enhance human rights
in the county.
|
Year
|
2010
|
2011
|
2012
|
Total
|
|
January
|
3
|
3
|
5
|
11
|
|
February
|
2
|
4
|
2
|
8
|
|
March
|
4
|
8
|
2
|
14
|
|
April
|
3
|
5
|
8
|
16
|
|
May
|
2
|
4
|
14
|
20
|
|
June
|
4
|
7
|
9
|
20
|
|
July
|
2
|
9
|
1
|
12
|
|
August
|
2
|
11
|
3
|
16
|
|
September
|
2
|
2
|
7
|
11
|
|
October
|
4
|
3
|
6
|
13
|
|
November
|
4
|
10
|
9
|
23
|
|
December
|
3
|
5
|
11
|
19
|
|
Total
|
35
|
71
|
77
|
183
|
CHAPTER THREE:
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
CONCLUSION:
There
has been a remarkable improvement in the work of the press in Africa and Ghana
in particular. Also governments in the continents have enacted a lot of laws
aimed at ensuring the freedom and independence of the press. Journalists are
also aware of the freedom they enjoy and this has led to the increase in the
number of independent press outlets.
Civil society has also come to realise the need to safeguard the freedom
and independence of the press. Again governments have come to accept criticisms
of the press as way of deepening democracy.
Despite
all these the press has not used the atmosphere of freedom to promote human
rights stories. This was realised when this study analysed front page stories
in the Ghanaian Times newspaper from 2010 to 2012.
RECOMMENDATION:
It
is recommended that newsmakers make human rights issues key in their speeches
since journalists in Ghana dwell more on ‘who makes the news and not the news’.
Also the editorial boards of the state owned press should create news desks
that will focus on human rights as they do for political, environment, health
and business.
It
is also recommended that stories that are taken from the court should be
followed up in later days to ascertain development after a court verdict. For
instance journalists should follow up on the lives of people who assault their
wives or husbands and are punished by the court to see if they have repented
after the court punishment.
Also
ex-convicts should be interviewed periodically to ascertain if indeed they have
been reformed by the prisons. They could also be interviewed to narrate their
ordeal in the prisons to serve as deterrents to potential criminals.
References:
Hasty,
J. (2006). Performing power, composing
culture: The state press in Ghana. Ethnography.
Sandbrook,
R. (1996) Transitions without
Consolidation: Democratization in six African cases. Third world quarterly 17(1:69-87)
Takougang,
J. (1995) The Press and the
Democratization process in Africa: The case of the Republic of Cameroon.
Journal of third world studies 12(2):326-49.
Hasty,
J. (2005). The Press and Political Culture in Ghana. Indiana University Press..
UNESCO
(1998) UNESCO Statistical Yearbook
1998.Paris: UNESCO.
Villalon,
L. (1998). The African State at the End
of the Twentieth Century:Parameters of critical juncture(,pp.3-26 in
L.A.Villalonand P.A.Huxtable(eds). The
African State at the Critical Juncture.
Human
Rights Watch, report (1999):http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno1-3
Valeria,
D. (2010). Media freedom: publisher
Danubius University
McDonnel,
J. (1991). PSB London and Newyork:
Routledge
Davila,
V. (2006): Freedom of the pressman
component of freedom of expression. Caras-Severin Court.
Sterling
S., O'Brien J., and Bennett J. (2007), “Advancement
through Interactive Radio” Information Systems Frontiers: Volume 11 Issue
2, April 2009
McFarland,
S. & Melissa, M. (2006). Who cares
about Human Rights. University of Connecticut
MacFarland,
S. (2005). Political Psychology. Western Kentucky
University
Gbcghana.com:
Government condemns attacks on
journalists by security personnel. Retrieved: 8th March 2013
from www.mediafound.org
Citifmnews.
Journalists attacked at NDC Congress:
2012 from www.citifmonline.con.
http://eth.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/7/1/69.published
by Sage publications
Meiklejohn,
A. (1960) Political Freedom:the
Constitutional Powers of the People .New
York:Harper.
Mills,
J.S. (1978) On liberty. Indianapolis,
IN:Hackett.
Joy
News:Journalists
NPP apologises to Multimedia for attacks
on its journalists: Retrieved: December 13 2012 from www.myjoyonline.com.
Hhttp:www.ghanabusiness.com/2012/12/13/media-foundation-condemns-npp-attacks-on
journalists/#sthash.GaDAcZaQ.dpuf by Media Foundation for West Africa
http://www.allghananews.com/general-news/3939-gja-condmns-police-attacks-on-journalist##ixzz2YXWVWP3F7
by Ghana Journalists Association
International Human Rights in Context Law, Politics, MoralsThird Edition
Henry J. Steiner, Harvard Law School,
Harvard University, Philip Alston,
New York University
School
of Law, and Ryan Goodman,
Harvard Law School, Harvard University
The third
edition of International
Amartya Sen (2005) is Lamont University Professor at Harvard
University,
Cambridge,
MA, USA
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