JOURNALISM HERE AND AT HOME I just read Manasseh Azure Awunis post in which he announced that he had returned home Empowered and poised for service. To God. Country. And what one may not add. My daily bread . What admirable candour. Even though I am a physician, I have always admired the craft of journalists and their very important role as guardians of the public interest. I remember during June 4TH era, reading Elizabeth Ohenes editorials and praying to God to give her more strength. She was so bold, clear and fearless even in the face of the revolutionaries while men were hiding behind the skirts of their wives. In America, Woodward and Bernstein defined journalism for the ages when their dogged work led to the exposure of Watergate and the 1974 resignation of President Nixon. I have always wondered how we can foster a similar high standard of journalism in Ghana. I, like many well-meaning Ghanaians, have been saddened by the increasing solilization of journalism in our country. For the avoidance of doubt, I do not mean by this that all journalists in Ghana are corrupt or guided sorely by soli. However, there are too many whose opinions are for sale. They will destroy any man or woman who is innocent or protect the guilty for the right kind of soli and that is a shame. Sometimes, watching them interview our leaders makes one want to gag. It seems that we learn more from our leaders when they are interviewed by foreign media than when they are interviewed locally. In 2006, I watched a discussion program for journalists who had won the Pulitzer prize in journalism, here in the US and were discussing their approaches to journalism. A white lady said that she felt that as a journalist, her calling was to be the voice of the voiceless. As she put it, I believe my calling is to look for the important stories that are being ignored because the victims are powerless and to tell it. The other was a black man. He said he did not believe that he should be an advocate. He felt his role was to be a medium of communication between actors and the public or between people and groups with different kinds of view. My role is not to be an advocate-- it is to tell the stories of people honestly and consistently without taking sides. In the end, it was difficult to choose which side to agree with. We should encourage and support our journalists to aspire to these high standards but they need our support. We should stand by journalists when they take on the powerful, as long as they are guided by their professional judgment and ethics. We should stand by them when the BNI starts inviting them instead of the criminals they are exposing. We should encourage the media houses to pay them well so that they are not forced to depend on soli. And we should condemn them when they are serving as tools of the powerful to destroy others. Have a great day
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 23:25:19 +0000
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