Among 26 media organisation monitored for media ethics infractions in the period of July 16-31, 2020, Pro-partisan Oman FM and Power FM emerged as the worst perpetrators recording 28 and 24 violations, respectively. News website Ghanaweb.com followed with 16 violations.
A total of 917 media content were monitored on the 26 selected media organisations which are made up of 10 Akan language broadcasting radio stations, 10 newspapers and 6 news websites. Out of the 917 media content, 92 ethical violations were recorded from 14 media organisations.
Radio stations recorded the highest with 70 incidents out of the 92 violations recorded during the period of monitoring. This was followed by news websites with 18 incidents. The remaining four ethical violations were in newspapers.
The report also revealed that Oman FM’s morning show, National Agenda, which is hosted by Yaw Amofa, is the programme with the highest number of ethical violations (14). This was closely followed by Power FM’s afternoon political talk show Inside Politics. The programme hosted by Mugabe Maase recorded the second-highest violations (13). Oman FM’s afternoon political show, Boiling Point, hosted by Kwabena Kwakye followed with 10 violations. Power FM’s morning show, Dwaboase, and Peace FM’s evening current affairs show, The Platform, recorded five violations each. Dwaboase is hosted by Kwame Menka while The Platform is hosted by Nana Yaw Kesse.
The report also observed that many websites and newspapers were observed to be publishing pictures that were too graphic and evoked strong emotions. Some of these images which included photos of mutilated bodies and remains of murder victims were not only obscene but showed no empathy to the families of the deceased.
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. The objective of the project is to identify and highlight incidents of ethical infractions and drawing 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 violated among other findings. Kindly click here to access it.
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 Programme Manager, Abigail (0244896588), or Programme Officer, Kwaku Krobea Asante (0249484528).
