Features
Where are the gatekeepers?
The passion for freedom is ineradicably ingrained in every human breast. In fact, when you see children displaying any streak of rebellion at that tender age, it is an outward manifestation of an inward disposition for freedom. But they soon realise, regretfully though, that there is a limit to their freedom. That is when their parents rightly heed the advice from the Holy Scriptures to not spare the rod. I know this from experience.
In God’s opinion, “Foolishness is bound in the heart of the child, but the rod of correction shall drive it away from him,” Proverbs 22:15. I do not think that back in the day, there was anyone as effective as my mother in applying this time-honoured catchphrase. Talk of a thoroughbred matriarch! That refers to my mum, Auntie Aggie, as she was popularly called.
She was as indulgent as she was penalising in her approach to nurturing. Her penetrating gaze in your direction while you misconducted yourself, was enough warning. That space meant grace for you. But to persist in your indiscretion implied courting trouble and reaping the due recompense. The rod would definitely be applied without any more grace. How I miss her!
Without any doubt, democracy thrives on liberty whose roots are in the freedom of the press, including freedom of speech. Professor Wole Soyinka, the man whose political activism made him a constant thorn in the flesh of Nigeria’s military dictators, once said: “The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.” But as scathing as he was in his publications, the Nigerian Nobel laureate who became the first African south of the Sahara to be so honoured in 1986 in the category of literature, did not just use his pen or voice to fight for the oppressed. He did so responsibly because he knew the implications of default.
In the former Soviet Union, a fresh wave of freedom hitherto unheard of in that rigid, iron-clad regime, blew across the republics of the federation when Mikhail Gorbachev, emerged as the new head of state. He quickly moved towards reform highlighted by his policy of openness whose core features were “glasnost” and “perestroika,” the terms for political and economic reform respectively.
In the process, he turned out to be the unlikeliest of leaders to become a proponent of free speech. “How can we live if not through criticisms from below, correcting our policies, fighting negative phenomena? I cannot imagine myself living without this form of democracy,” he famously said as he embarked on his bold agenda to dismantle the suffocating culture of silence under which dissent was a crime. No wonder, he also won a Nobel prize for peace.
Just as in the Soviet Union, maybe in less severe terms, a culture of silence prevailed in Ghana. Various governments, right from Ghana’s early days under colonialism, through to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s post-independence era, as well as the military regimes that followed, hid behind the criminal libel law to hound and punish people for the slightest hint of opposition which was synonymous with pointing out wrongdoing. Given the latitude and scope of the law, Ghanaians were deprived of any safeguards against excesses of that draconian statute. You criticised the government at the peril of your life. Extra-judicial killings were rampant.
Editors of private newspapers were tortured. Notable among them were Dr. Chris Asher Snr of the Palaver who blazed the trail in the struggle to entrench freedom of the press before the likes of Tommy Thompson and John Kugblenu, publisher and editor respectively, of the Free Press, took over with Haruna Atta of the Statesman, Kweku Baako, Kwesi Pratt and Ewusi-Brookman of the Pioneer.
Also deserving of recognition are columnists such as Professor P.A.V. Ansah of the Chronicle, who was the Dean of the School of Communications Studies, University of Ghana, Legon; Professor Adu Boahene, and Lawyer Obeng Manu who wrote for The Pioneer.
Gradually, the struggle yielded dividends reaching its climax with the repeal of the Criminal and Seditious Libel Act by Parliament on Friday, 27th July 2001. This was in fulfillment of a pledge by candidate J.A. Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to do so if he was elected.
The dismantling of the harsh law immediately led to a proliferation of the media in all its forms. More private newspapers have since been established. Radio stations have sprung up in every nook and cranny of the country, leading to a very vibrant and robust media free to voice views contrary to that of the government. Social media platforms are also inundated with all sorts of contrary opinions that have all served to make Ghana one of the most media-friendly and free countries in Africa, and indeed, the world.
Unfortunately, a section of the media appears to be on a downward trajectory. Some are taking this newfound, hard-won freedom farther than it was intended. They are behaving as if the floodgates have been opened for irresponsible journalism. To them, freedom of the press has no boundaries. They misconstrue freedom of the press to mean the right to venture into prohibited territory at will without any scruples. That is a false paradigm.
Madam Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the longest-serving American first lady, (1933-1945), who was a great champion of freedom, disagrees with that notion. She says, “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.” That responsibility is to be law-abiding or face the consequences of your breach. Pope Paul II puts it this way: “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought,”
Many unscrupulous people, taking undue advantage of the decriminalisation of free speech and the ensuing liberal media climate, have resorted to crass disregard for ethics and are unprofessionally spuing messages that are obviously defamatory and seditious, all in the name of freedom of the press.
And people who should know better are rather leading the parade of coup mongers to beat war drums. When you willfully cross the line to challenge the boundaries of the law, that is presumptuous trespass. It is as if you are testing the limit of what is tolerable, and you must not blame anybody if you find yourself in an unpleasant embrace of the long arm of the law.
Governments are ordained by God to regulate society. In fact, governments are described by the Holy Scriptures as ministers of God for the praise of those who do well and the punishment of those who breach the law. God says they do not bear the sword in vain. In other words, governments have punitive powers. For that matter, we are told to expect punishment when we fall foul of the law.
Thomas Jefferson, the primary draftsman of the Declaration of Independence of the United States, America’s first Secretary of State (1789–94), its Second Vice President (1797–1801), and the third president (1801–09), extolled the importance of the press by stating: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
His reasons: “The people are the only censors of their governors: and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution. To punish these errors too severely would be to suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty. The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them full information of their affairs through the channel of the public papers, and to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people. The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right.”
An Akan proverb says: “Nnfa mcmcne nnhy3 m’anum na wonnka s3 m’anum bcn,” to wit, “Do not sneak stinking fish into my mouth and charge me with having foul breath,” Do not misbehave and charge the government with high-handedness. Let the press grow up as Mrs. Roosevelt advises, otherwise we are not worthy of Jefferson’s encomium; otherwise, we justify the stance of those who opposed the repeal of the criminal and seditious law. Before freedom, gatekeeping was the watchword. Where are the gatekeepers now?
By Tony Prempeh
Contact: teepeejubilee@yahoo.co.uk
THE journalist is a hunter. He goes after human rats and grasscutters personified, matters about whom he can salt and spice and present as news. The fatter and juicier the catch, the better, because sensation is essentially our cup of tea.
Our job is to sell news and sell it in grand style.
Because the journalist is a hunter and is created with a special kind of nose for sniffing out news, he is usually not welcome in many places. He is seen as someone who has been born to make people uncomfortable.
The problem is that some people don’t want things written about them even if it is promotional and favourable. When it entails publishing their pictures alongside the story, they are doubly scared.
“Please, don’t use my picture. People will think I’ve got money and come for loan,” someone told me.
Anyhow, journalists are seen as intruders, undesirables, born with plenty of okro in the mouth; maybe some also in the nose. Some of my friends are no longer too close because they fear I’d give them full coverage in the Sikaman Palava column. Ha ha ha! What a funny world!
Well, people like my Uncle, Sir Kofi Jogolo, my former classmate and born-mathematician, Kwame Korkorti, and ex-football star cum human-salamander Kofi Kokotako don’t mind featuring in the hilarious inches of this column. Kofi Owuo alias Death By Poverty is one personality who has to be mentioned in this palaver.
These are people who are going to live long, primarily because they see the world as one big ball of fun. When Kwame Korkorti was told that his dear mother was dead at home, he smiled and asked the bearer of the message whether his mother had cooked the afternoon meal before claiming she was dead. Until her death, Korkorti ate his lunch at his mother’s end.
When my Uncle Kofi Jogolo was picked and lost 1,500 dollars and a good amount of Sikaman currency, he didn’t lament the loss. Instead he was amused. In fact, he was almost glad about it, because he grinned from ear to ear, stroked his delicate moustache and congratulated the thief, adding that “He is smarter than I am.” Yeah, Jogolo is the man who employs a Swedish barber to trim his moustache.
And when Kofi Kokotako was unemployed and was nearly hit by an articulated truck, he called the driver a fool. “The idiot should have killed me,” he said to me. “Didn’t he know I was unemployed and suffering?”
Today, Kokotako is employed as a Reverend and is not doing badly at all. Thanks to the regular silver collection.
And what about Kofi Owuo, the celebrated poor man. His wife left him not because he was poor, but because he swore in front of her that he would never prosper.
The following dawn the wife packed bag and baggage and went back to her parents and told them all about her husband’s alliance with poverty. Her parents were bewildered and called the alliance unholy. They had no option than to send back Owuo’s drinks to end the marriage.
Kofi Owuo alias Death By Poverty did not contest the issue. He was more engrossed thinking about how to become poorer than to contest what he called a frivolous matter. The wife could go to hell, he said. These are people longevity smiles upon. Nothing worries them.
Getting back to talking about journalists. I’d say that anywhere there is journalism, the issue of press freedom is not too far away. Is the press free? That’s one question foreigners want answer to when they are on visit.
Well, journalists celebrate a yearly WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY to drum home the idea of press freedom as a very important thing in the practice of journalism.
This year’s was celebrated almost a fortnight ago but people didn’t see much of us because we are normally not good celebrants. We should have mounted a float to roam the entire capital, dancing asaboni to brass band music just like PTC did recently.
Although journalists are known to be very good dancers because they walk very much, on that day, they were all busy writing. It was the Minister of Information, Mr Kofi Totobi Quakyi who saved the day by addressing a forum organised to mark the day.
He is a man I’ve always admired since his radical university days. He spoke much on press freedom, cautioning the press not to abuse the freedom granted by the Fourth Republican constitution, but to use it for the progress of society.
Well, press freedom has been defined by many journalists as the freedom to ‘write nonsense’. This definition is not quite accurate. I asked one staff reporter to define press freedom. It took him fifteen minutes to put up something.
“Press freedom is the freedom that is enjoyed by the press that enables journalists to publish or broadcast any kind of material so long as it is absolutely true, is not libelous and slanderous, and is not against the national interest.”
I gave him eight out of 10, a straight A. I guess every journalist is old enough to know that certain things he or she writes is for or against the national interest. We certainly must guard against writing against the national interest; that is very important.
There is also the question of criticising government. The government can be criticized, so long as the criticisms are genuine and the President and his ministers are not insulted and called names. Let us criticize, but let us do it decently so that the journalistic profession can be revered, and its nobility acknowledged. We are not war mongers, are we?
One area in which journalists are not spoken well of is the complaint that they misquote people. Journalists sometimes misquote people, but in four out of five complaints it turns out that nobody is misquoted after all.
When we interview people they say things unreservedly and we publish unreservedly. When the publication is out and their friends or superiors read it and accuse them of having said too much to the press, then they start claiming they were misquoted.
We have encountered these ‘misquotation palaver’ every now and then and reporters are usually accused of this transgression. However, when they bring out their note-books or recorders, it is realised that they wrote nothing out of the way. “Book no lie”.
My advice to people who deal with the press is that if they do not want anything written, they shouldn’t say it. What they want to say is OFF-RECORD, then of course, there is no reason to say it. When you say it, you’re taking a risk. In that instance, you can’t also claim to have been misquoted or words put into your mouth.
And it isn’t every journalist who would be circumspect in matters that are supposed to be off-record, because journalists often want to be as sensational as possible to make their stories saleable. So say just what you want to see published and you won’t later regret it and claim you were misquoted.
Well, I’m not holding brief for journalists, because a few of us are notorious for colouring our reports sometimes sand-papering the words so much that they look very bright in front of readers.
As I once said, when the police tells one such notorious pressman that the thief stole a brown goat, the pressman would want to know whether the goat was bearded. Of course, the police would say ‘Yes’.
However, in the press report, it appears, “A gang of notorious goat-thieves were apprehended in the early hours of yesterday. In the car in which they were riding was a brownish-red goat having a long beard. Upon further examination, it was realised that the goat also had a greyish moustache.”
When the story appears, the police are naturally disturbed. A single thief turns out to be a gang of thieves. The goat also becomes a chameleon and changes colour to brownish-red. And a moustacheless goat overnight wears a greyish moustache whether you like it or not. Luckily the journalist does not add that the moustache was trimmed by a Swedish barber.
Yes, we have a few of such mischief-creating, chronically notorious journalists. But they are one in a hundred. In any case, we make the world. And we shall always do our best to make it a happy place to live in.
This article was first publish on Saturday, May, 20, 1995
When I hear of people who are of the opinion that they cannot make it in life unless they travel abroad, l become sad.
Whenever I see on TV, news of people, that is migrants who have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, while attempting to cross to Europe, l become filled with sadness and then anger.
The underlying factor is desperation born out of loss of hope, in life. When an individual tends to believe that his only hope of making it in life is to travel abroad, the risk of dying at sea, does not deter him or her.
The role of some pastors on shaping the mindset of people, especially the youth, leaves much to be desired. You hear them declaring on various media platforms how they can pray for you to get a visa to travel abroad, instead of encouraging them to find something to do to improve their lives as the Bible teaches that God will bless the work of their hands.
The GREATER WORKS CONFERENCE is geared towards renewing the minds of people with a specific focus on people of African descent to rid themselves of the negative perception of lack of capacity to excel in life.
Pastor Mensa Otabil believes that every human being, no matter the skin colour, was created in the exact image of God and therefore has the capacity to do exploits.
The whiteman was not created in the image of God while the Blackman was created in the image of something other than God. The Black person therefore can achieve whatever the whiteman can achieve.
The development in terms of industrialisation that is lacking which has generated unemployment for the youth, is due to lack of effective leadership. The lack of moral integrity in society, is what is causing the lack of job opportunities, which is as a result of corrupt acts which drive away private investment.
A culture of inferiority complex exists which needs to be dealt with, so the African can develop the self worth necessary for personal development which can then result in capacity deployment to avhieve personal goals.
Success in life begins with the individual’s recognition that he or she is capable of achieving the dreams he or she has conceived in his or her mind. The Bible teaches that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding according to Proverbs 9:10.
Christianity was the driving force behind the development of Europe because no society can sustain development without high moral values. GREATER WORKS therefore is a deliberate project to shape the minds of people, especially the youth, who will become the leaders of our future, to prioritise morality in their daily lives.
This is the only way to see a massive transformation in every aspect of our lives as Ghanaians and Africans in Ghana and the rest of the continent.
Since the inception of the GREATOR WORKS CONFERENCE, it has made a lot of impact in the lives of many people from the youth up to the senior citizens level. I recall the testimony of a church member who was motivated and pursued higher education and became one of the youngest Chartered Accountants in this country. Year after year, the impact of the conference has been enormous and lives in Ghana and across the continent, are being transformed.
Black people have started regaining their self confidence and the youth have started getting into areas that previously were considered out of bounds. At a personal level, certain ideas that some years ago, l would have not dreamt about suddenly has become realistic dreams.
The Christian lifestyle has impacted on my children and those close to me. Mindset change starts with one individual, then another and then gradually it spreads like a viral infection until a critical mass is attained and them a massive impact. There is hope for the future.
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
