Morning show and political talk show programmes on Hot FM and Pro-NDC Power FM have emerged with the highest incidence of media ethics violations for the period of August 1-15.
This was observed by the ethics monitoring project of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) which monitored 26 news organisations made up of 10 Akan language radio stations, 10 newspapers and six news websites. A total of 973 pieces of content from the 26 organisations were monitored and analysed out of which 141 ethical violations were recorded.
Power FM’s afternoon political talk show, Inside Politics, which is hosted by Mugabe Maase, recorded the highest number of violations (40) during the period of monitoring. The radio station’s morning show, Dwaboase, hosted by Kwame Menka and Hot FM’s morning show, Maakye Dwumadie, hosted by Isaac Boamah Darko, followed with both recording 13 violations each. Hot FM’s afternoon major current affairs show, Dwene Ho Bio, also followed with eight violations. The show is hosted by Kaakyire Kwadwo Asamoah.
Radio stations were noted to be the worst perpetrators of the media ethics, recording 124 out of the 141 violations recorded for the period of monitoring. This was followed by news websites with 12 incidents. Newspapers recorded the remaining one (1) ethical violation.
The report further noted that show hosts provoked and endorsed violence among audience in certain regions and communities perceived to be the strong holds of the opposition NDC where there were alleged reports of security personnel preventing citizens being from registering in the then ongoing voter registration exercise.
The period of monitoring also showed a high infraction of the principle of Accuracy. This is owing to the making of wild accusations and unsubstantiated allegations mostly made by hosts and guests against their political opponents on the pro-partisan radio stations. These allegations were largely unproven, exaggerations and in some cases outright falsehood.
The monitoring of media ethics is part of a project titled: Enhancing media professionalism to inspire public confidence and support for press freedom in Ghana being implemented with funding support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The objective of the project is to identify and highlight incidents of ethical infractions and draw attention to such breaches as a way of fostering adherence to ethical principles by media organisations.
The full report contains the specific ethical principles violated, the names of the media outlets that committed the violations, among other findings. Click here to access the full report. The instrument being used for the monitoring, which contains the category definitions for tracking and reporting of ethical principles is also available here.
For further clarifications and media interviews, contact the Programme Manager, Abigail Larbi-Odei (0244867047) or Programme Officer, Kwaku Krobea Asante (0249484528).
