Good Call Ursula, Good Good Call

The New Publisher agrees with and associates itself with the recent call by Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful on the need for responsible journalism.

In as much as we all appreciate press freedoms and a prerequisite for good democratic governance, many media houses have hidden under the guide of “press freedoms” to indult in the worst forms of irresponsible, reckless and sheer nonsensical journalism.

A good number of times, perpetuators get away with such reckless media irresponsibility because the institutions tasked to regulate the media have not lived up to expectation.

If the regulatory bodies were doing their work as mandated by law, no media house would dare broadcast complete charlatanic contents including persons who claim they are money doublers giving airtime on television to advertise their fraudulent acts and publicize their contact details to the viewing public including minors.

Aside the certified fraudsters, there is another group of media houses who show strictly adult content during prime time. The irresponsibility has gone on unattended. The regulatory bodies have pretended to not know or not see.

To add salt to injury, the situation is worsened by the number of media houses who allow their spaces to be used by politically exposed persons to incite violence, hate speech or cause public panic.

The key solution to this dangerous trend is if and when the regulatory agencies start to bite and bite hard. Someone certainly ought to be pushing them to do live up to task and the call from Ursula is most timely and of critical importance.

Ursula Owusu-Ekuful could not have put it any better in her recent call on the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the National Media Commission (NMC) to intensify their supervisory roles in overseeing the media landscape especially in this election year.

Ursula spoke truth and sense when she said: “Two key regulators in this sector are the NCA and the NMC. I know the NCA has set up a broadcast monitoring centre here, which the NMC is using to monitor the content that is put out by all broadcasters, and those who fall foul of their own guidelines are sanctioned. I expect them to deepen that collaboration to ensure that together, we work to sanitize the airwaves, and we don’t see an upsurge in fake news, media publications, defamatory material, and things that will tend to disturb or threaten the peace and security of our nation.”

“So I am expecting the two regulators to work closely together this year to monitor what’s put out and work with the Ghana Journalists Association and Independent Broadcasters Association to sanitize the space for our collective good,” Ursula noted.

We expect the regulatory agencies to heed the call and do what is right.