Mid-Week Madness:Of Irresponsible Journalists like Joseph Appiah-Dolphyne, and ECOWAS

It is a recondite fact that a lot of our Ghanaian media practitioners need capacity-building to be more discerning, but this has got to take the biscuit.

As I was winding down things to leave the office, I come across an article on Google News, which claims "ECOWAS ‘recognizes’ Gbagbo as president".

Now, if you have been following the story for the past three months, you would find this totally at synch against the ECOWAS option of wanting to use "legitimate force" to oust Gbagbo.

The journalist uses a PDF article on the ECOWAS website (http://www.ecowas.int) to claim that ECOWAS supports Gbagbo. This is totally mischievous. The PDF article is dated 6 June, 2010 -- many months before the whole crisis exploded.

The link he refers to can be downloaded here: http://www.ecowas.int/publications/en/ecowas_unit/Ecowas-National-Unit-Directory.pdf

An old article about a then-legitimate leader many months ago is in no way an endorsement by ECOWAS of Gbagbo as the President of Cote d'Ivoire.

Joseph Appiah-Dolphyne must come again!!

As the Week Opens in Accra: Mad Men in the Ghanaian Media

The week has opened with a lot of noise and speculation in the Ghanaian media about what the British call "cheque book journalists". I would like to think that no country is immune from this kind of journalism. In Ghana, it is just that it has a different twist--rather than the journalists being ashamed that they have succumbed to this kind of atypical journalism, they lament--like journalist Baby Ansabah (who is the talking point right now -- that they did not get anything from the previous government for castigating the incumbent President who was then in opposition. The claim that others got immovable property and cars is just...something else. Issues like these only deepen my perception of the media as riddled with more (square pegs in round )holes than a swiss cheese, and a lot of mediocrity.

It was refreshing to hear CITI97.3fm's Bernard Avle broaching the issue this morning on the "Breakfast Show". I would hope he can talk more about his colleagues in future.

In my view, only a critical self-reflection of the Ghanaian media by their own kind can take the future of journalism to heights that commanded respect in the era of Dr.Kwame Nkrumah when even Nigerians--better journalists these days in my view than my Ghanaian counterparts!--came to Ghana to study at the Ghana Institute of Journalism!

The Curious Case of Kojo Media (aka the Ghanaian Media) & Why I Blog

For the past month, I have been acting as ICT/Telecommunications judge on the 14th Ghana Journalist Association(GJA) Media Awards. They are scheduled to be launched on Saturday 15th August. [ http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/entertainment/artikel.php?ID=163101]

Next week is exactly five years since I arrived back home from Belgium to the job I am in. In my personal opinion, I believe the media has gotten worse over this period. There are quite a number of professionals that are doing well as journalists; sadly the charlattans outweigh the professionals!

The practice of journalism is in a very sorry state--despite the astronomical rise of the private press (yes, you could say that our press is free! (even too liberal at times!!) ), what with papers aligning themselves to political parties. Though that is nothing new, it went o the increase, especially in the second term of the NPP.

Papers like "The Statesman"; "The Ghanaian Observer"; and "The Daily Guide" are three mainstream papers that toe the NPP line. They toed it in the last few months of the NPP, and continue to do so, with often-times bombastic headlines that should alert our National Media Commission, which is itself as toothless as a dodo...

It is now possible for anyone to create two columns on a sheet of paper, and label those papers that are pro- and anti-goverment. The situation with journalism has become that dire and polarised. Party-affiliation is no secret as in the UK, where the Telegraph and Daily Mail are usually in support of the Conservatives, but at least the British press is capable of scoops like that of the parliamentary expenses which exposed BOTH the incumbent Labour and Tories.

In Ghana, any kind of scoop like that would have exposed only ONE party!

The biggest change, in my view, has been the rise of private papers, but many of them have only deepend the polarisation that already exists.

I do believe that a free press is important for Ghana, but free press without regulation (I understand that the National Media Commission is being re-constituted to have teeth as it was woefully under-staffed, and has experienced conflicts with the National Communications Authority that claims to be only technical-savvy) is no free press, but a cauldron of over-zealous (pseudo-)journalists who have hijacked the true journalism in the country.

The Ghana Institute of Journalism is 60 years old this August, and is acknowledged as being one of the premier institutions in the country that Dr.Kwame Nkrumah established to train and TEACH journalists from all over Africa. This sorry state 60 years later is beyond sad, but a horrible legacy to our forefathers who had a vision of the institite churning out QUALITY African journalists. Instead, GIJ has become a conduit to churn out journalists who chase after "soli", or solidarity money to have stories published. This is also another worrying trend that is being dealt with slowly and surely.

At work, we always have a budget for "soli" to have stories published; it usually is to cover transport as the media houses are not interested in catering sufficiently for their employees. Little wonder soli becomes the order of the day. Without it, publication in the dailies is rare. That IS a reality.

As regards the online community, Ghana has an online community, with the latest being GHANABLOGGING.com. I have referred to the eponymous site in my SUNDAY WORLD[http://www.sundayworldonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=45&Itemid=61] ("technology" column: (http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com/2009/03/nighmare-on-hp-pavilion-street-1.html), and will continue to do so. As far as I know, that is the most "structured" online community for bloggers blogging in Ghana. I have given a bit of an explanation of its genesis in the link above.

It is difficult to tell how many hits my blog gets a week, to be frank, as I have not been monitoring that much. What I do know is that it is listed in the TOP 100 Blogs about Africa: http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2009/100-best-blogs-for-learning-about-africa/. The other bloggers in Ghana include GHANACONSCIOUS: http://ghanaconscious.ghanathink.org/blog.

Why I WRITE MY BLOG

:
I like to write--and enjoy writing. Given that I love technology, the advent of blogging meant that I could combine my two interests to create a voice for myself. I have thus far managed to maintain five blogs quite regularly, and see blogs as helping me organise my ideas and thought. My blogs can be found on http://www.ekbensah.net.

The latest that is not there is http://african-union-citizen.blogspot.com, which title is "I am a Proud African Union Citizen".

The blogs that are very different from my ekbensahinghana and accradailyphoto.com are the http://critiquing-regionalism.org and http://twelvedaysintunis.blogspot.com.

The first chronicles ideas and thoughts on comparative global integration, with the latter being more about technology.

When you get no less than the AFP making serious mistakes on Africa as in the case below, then you know percpetions of Africa remain very very poor!:
==========================
from: http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-world/bongos-body-arrives-in-gabon-20090612-c55o.html
"The six-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which Gabon is a member, has declared a community mourning period of 30 days. Foreign leaders will continue to arrive in Libreville for Bongo's state funeral."
===========================
1. GABON is in Central Africa
2. ECOWAS has 15 members--and a website: http://www.ecowas.int!

Why the BBC World Service?

I like the World Service because of its plurality, diversity, and quality of English. I am a lexophile, and find that despite the simplicity of the documentaries, I often learn more from the different KINDS of people who are interviewed on the WS. Plus, I miss my BBC Radio Four, and find the WS a great alternative! That it has an African service is great, but I would love to connect with MORE European programmes, such as "Europe Today". A podcast is great, but not enough for me!!

This entry was based on an email exchange with Journalist Adam Westbrook-former Ghana visitor-of-2002 and blogger who took time out of his busy life as a broadcast journalist to ask me some questions which reflect this post

Did the NPP government really think about branding Ghana? (Part I/II)

Get video codes at Bolt.

In this short clip, which I captured from Ghana's Metro TV, the very personable Cardiff-university-trained Mary-Anne Acolatse (formerly of TV3) interviewing Ben Ephson of the Daily Dispatch on the perception of the foreign media of Ghana. Epson wonders why it took the Ghana@50 secretariat and Ghana government to set up preparations for the celebrations a good 7 months!, when the Malaysians, also celebrating their 50th, started many months ago?!!

Thank You, Adam Westbrook!; Where is E.K.Bensah I?

Adam Westbrook, I hope, ought not to be much of a stranger on this blog, though I do understand why it might be for some--given the clutter on this blog of mine;-)

Seriously, Adam is not just budding, but a very consummate broadcast journalist student, who is bound to go far, not just because he's called me "venerable", or "audacious and witty", but because he provides a very interesting perspective of journalism, his studies, the challenges he encounters, including perspectives on other issues of international affairs, like Sudan, and not-surprisingly, Ghana.

In his latest post, he threw me a challenge, when he wrote:

"This week marks fifty years since Ghana gained it’s independence from Britain. There’s celebrations going on all over the place in Ghana and the UK.

I’ll be writing as much as possible about it all this week, as well as trying to munch down on my first Ghanaian meal in four years.

And if you want to read all about it on the ground, check out EK Bensah’s brilliant blog
"

Erm. Splutter?!!?!

Say what, Adam:-))

Bang goes my sipping of pina colada, tomorrow, whilst in my bed listening to Kwame Nkrumah inform Ghanaians (yes, understatement, I know!) that Ghana, our beloved country, is free forever!...

...while contemporraneously wondering why my Dad hasn't yet told me why my paternal grandfather EK Bensah, in his capacity as Minister of Works and Housing is featured in the History of the Ghana Institue of Architects enjoying himself, as quoted here:

The inauguration of the Institute came off successfully on the 11th of December 1964 as planned at the lecture theatre of the Commonwealth Hall, University of Ghana, Legon, at 8:30 p.m. Hon E.K. Bensah, the Minister of Works and Housing, was the Chairman. He was supported by Nana Kobina Nketia IV, Director, Institute of Art and Culture, Dr. R.P. Baffour, Vice-Chancellor, KNUST and Mr. G.Y. Odoi, Managing Director, Ghana National Construction Corporation. The first Fellowships of the GIA were conferred on Hon E.K. Bensah, Dr. R.P Baffour, Hon. L. K. Apaloo and Mr. G.Y. Odoi. The Ghana Police Band was in attendance and dished out “conc” Hi-life tunes in their pristine state. (from: http://www.arcghana.org/gia_history.htm

OR...

what duties EK Bensah I performed, in his capacity as "African Ministerial Secretaries in 1953", as is featured here:

1. Mr J. H. Allassani, Ministerial Secretary for Develop-
ment.
2. Mr J. K. Donkor, Ministerial Secretary for Health and
Labour.
3. Mr Ohene Djan, Ministerial Secretary for Finance.
4. Mr J. B. Erzuah, Ministerial Secretary for Education
and Social Welfare.
5. Mr Krobo Edusei, Ministerial Secretary for Justice.

6. Mr E. K. Bensah, Ministerial Secretary for Commerce,
Industry, and Mines.

7. Mr A. Imoru, Ministerial Secretary for Agriculture and
Natural Resources.
8. Mr Kwesi Plange, Ministerial Secretary for Local
Government.
9. Mr F. Y. Asare, Ministerial Secretary for Housing,
Town and Country Planning.
10. Mr Atta Mensah, Ministerial Secretary for Communi-
cations and Works.
11. Mr R. A. Ampodu, Ministerial Secretary for Defence.

MR JOSEPH EMMANUEL APPIAH, the personal representa-
tive in the United Kingdom of the Prime Minister, was born
in Kumasi in 1923, the son of a former schoolmaster and now
Chief Secretary to the Ashanti Confederacy Council. Mr
Appiah received his secondary education at Mfantsipim
College in the Gold Coast before coming to Britain to read
Law at the Middle Temple. During the early part of the
Second World War, he served as transport officer first at
Takoradi and later on at Freetown, Sierra Leone, on the staff
of the United Africa Company.

fromhttp://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=17219785

It is an article of irony that his youngest grandson would work with an organisation that campaigns against, inter alia the perpetuation of commerce, or trade, --not to mention policy on mines -- that is inimical to the development of not just my beloved country of Ghana, but the rest of Africa.

Forgive my apparent self-aggrandizement, but if no-one will honour my grandfather, who am I not to? If you see this, Dad, I'm sure you'll be very happy;-)

Long live Ghana!

I will be sure to bring some more perspectives this week on Ghana, such as the importance of Ghana helping Guinea at this critical time--in a manner akin to that of Dr.Kwame Nkrumah several decades ago!

This is What Young Ghanaian Journalists Should Aspire to!

With less than a week before the Jubilee celebrations, the country is undergoing reflection—whether serious or not is a very moot point!—on the state of a number of things. The state of Ghanaian media is no exception. Now, let’s be – yet again – clear: I am no journalist; a few courses here and there have helped me appreciate the practice, but I don’t have a journalism degree to my name. What I do have are a few journalist friends/acquaintqnces who remind me that the proactiveness of the young journalists in this country is a great deal better than one would have expected.

Let’s take the case of the Stanbic Bank/ADB issue. The Sunday after I wrote that article, I contacted a journalist from the Business and Financial Times. I gave him what he has considered a "scoop" on the ADB/Stanbic story, which I am quite chuffed about. More importantly, though, was his tenacity, his questioning, his seeking of clarifications for the story, which turned out to be a front-page story like this:



This, within two days!!

I was more than impressed. As I was equally impressed to have heard that Bernard Avle, broadcast Journalist-cum-Economist of the private radio station, CITI FM 97.3, had had his show win the award for "NEW RADIO STATION of the year" and "TALK/INTERACTIVE SHOW of the year", for no less than BBC's Africa Radio Awards for West Africa!

I have spoken and interacted with Avle a number of times, and can say that he thoroughly deserves it! Full of humility on the evening of the win, in his response to the flagship CITI Eyewitness News, he praised the producers (Soloman Alhaji—sp?), among others of the show, and the number of unsung heroes who make the show possible. He told me he did a google search of his name—only to find his name featured in a number of entries yours truly had made about him!;-) It is good to know that it is something he appreciated.

Whatever the case may be, my view is that this is how the budding journalists in the country should be behaving...fifty years on!