Features
‘Peeping’ into the ‘thoughts’ of the Chief Justice
Just last week, the Chief Justice, Mr Kwasi Anin-Yeboah, made ‘landmark statements’ about the media in Accra.
Reportedly, he said : “The judiciary has no power or option of interfering with media freedom”, stressing that “Ghana must and will remain a bastion of freedom of speech.”
The caveat of the Chief Justice was, however; “we must urgently address the issues of standards and propriety in relation to court reporting, else we make ourselves vulnerable to misinformation that will mislead the citizenry.”
Chief Justice
GJA President
Justice Anin-Yeboah made these statements while inaugurating the Judicial Press Corps , besides launching a handbook for journalists on court reporting.
The Chief Justice added:”The media is not an enemy of the judiciary, rather the two entities are enjoined by the Constitution to fight for peace and development of Ghana.”
However, he cautioned media practitioners and other communicators to respect the sanctity of the law courts and assured that the courts will do their best to ensure the smooth operations of the media.
The fact of the matter is that none of the arms of government has any power or option , under our 4th Republican Constitution , to interfere with media freedom, free expression and freedom of speech.
Indeed, freedom of speech and expression is the lifeblood of any democracy. For instance, to debate and vote, to assemble and protest, to worship, to ensure Justice for all; all these rely upon unrestricted flow of speech and information.
Really, democracy is communication: people talking to one another about their common problems and forging a common destiny. And before people can govern themselves, they must be free to express themselves.
This column, however, whole-heartedly agrees with the Chief Justice that , “we must urgently address the issues of standards and propriety”, not only in relation to court reporting but also “high media standards” in all spheres of our media industry.
As modern societies grow in size and complexity, the arena for communication and public debate is increasingly dominated by the news media and this time round, the social media.
The news media in a democracy have a number of overlapping functions . One is to inform and educate.
A second function of the media is to serve as a watchdog over government and other powerful institutions in the society, including the judiciary.
By holding to a standard of independence, objectivity and fairness; however imperfectly, the news media can expose the truth behind claims of governments and hold public officials accountable for their actions.
If they choose, the media can also take a more active role in public debates. For instance, through editorials or investigative reporting, the media can campaign for specific policies or reforms that they feel should be enacted.
Analysts point to another important role of the media: “setting the agenda”. Since they cannot report everything, the news media choose which issues to report and which issues to ignore.
In effect, the news media decide what is news and what is not news. Such decisions, in turn, influence the public’s perception of what issues are most important.
Readers, not many people, including our Chief Justice, may argue that the news media always carry out their functions responsibly.
Many journalists, who are “messengers of news” , may also aspire to high standards of objectivity and fairness, but the fact of the matter is that, in some cases, news is inevitably filtered through the biases and sensibilities of individuals and the enterprises for which they work.
The reality on the ground is that, news can be sensational, superficial, intrusive, inaccurate and inflammatory.
And the question is: what should institutions of state do in cases where the news media or other organisations abuse freedom of speech; with information that in the opinion of the majority, is false, repugnant, irresponsible or simply, in bad taste?
It may seem a paradox but some advocates of free speech claim that the solution is not to devise laws that set arbitrary definition of responsibility or to license journalists, but to broaden the level of public discourse so that citizens can better sift through the chaff of misinformation and rhetoric to find the kernels of truth.
Indeed, the “supersonic change of the world” is revealing but in 1919 a distinguished Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, Oliver Wendel Holmes stated: “The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.”
An American essayist, E.B White, puts it this way:”The press in our free country is reliable and useful not because of its good character but because of its great diversity.
“As long as there are many owners, each persuing its own brand of truth, we the people, have the opportunity to arrive at the truth and dwell in the light.”
So, My Lord Chief Justice, as you rightly stated; the media is not an enemy of the judiciary, the two entities are enjoined by the Constitution to fight for peace and development of our country.
The only snag here, in my view, is that the seemingly ‘germinating’ social media ‘terrorism’ in the country should not ‘infuriate’ the judiciary to sew “terrorism gowns and wigs” to counterbalance the irresponsibility of the new phenomenon where fake news is on “unstoppable” ascendancy.
Contact email/ WhatsApp of author:
asmahfrankg@gmail.com (0505556179)
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Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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