From June 15 to 30, 2020, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) monitored ethical violations on 26 news organisations made up of 10 Akan language radio stations, 10 newspapers and six news websites. A total of 936 pieces of content from the 26 organisations were monitored and analysed out of which 116 ethical violations were recorded.
Pro-NDC Power FM’s afternoon political talk show, Inside Politics, hosted by Mugabe Maase and the station’s current affairs programme, Battle Ground, hosted by Oheneba Barnie had the highest incidents of ethical violations of 13 and 12 violations respectively. Pro-NPP Oman FM’s Morning show, National Agenda hosted by Yaw Amofa, and Happy FM’s current affairs programme, Epa Ho a Daben programme, hosted by Nana Okatakyie Afrifa Mensah, also recorded 12 ethical violations each.
Overall, radio stations emerged as the worst perpetrators of ethical violations accounting for 70% of the violations recorded. This is followed by news websites (25%) with Ghanaweb.com as the main culprit accounting for 12 violations. The remaining five percent of violations came from the 10 newspapers.
The MFWA’s media ethics monitoring activity is part of the organisation’s project on Enhancing media professionalism to inspire public confidence and support for press freedom in Ghana, which is being implemented with funding support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
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