 And to cap it all, the opposition refused to accept the results of the presidential election and launched a challenge to overturn the results in court. They declined to recognize my government and this manifested in a boycott of my inauguration and a refusal to participate in the process of vetting my ministers.”
The above quote is part of an interview the New African magazine had with President John Dramani Mahama and published in its current issue.
The president added, “this was a combustible combination of elements that made governance very difficult and one had to remain focused in those circumstances. I believe that such a combination of forces or elements cannot exist again for any president; I don’t expert them ever again. In fact, I believe they have strengthened me a lot and give me the kind of courage I need for this office.”
The President was asked “now that the court issue is over, did you expert the level of political sniping and insults to tone sown in the Ghanaian media?
His response: “[Laughs] I want to change the word ‘expect’ to ‘hope’. I hope it will, but knowing the bitter rivalry that exists in our politics I am not very hopeful. But I believe that we have all learned some lessons, that there is a limit to how we can push the kind of freedom of expression we have on our airwaves and in our media.
Some people have been jailed recently for contempt and it reminded, people after a long while that there are limits to freedom of expression, even though our constitution guarantees it as the right.
We have a very liberal chapter on the media in our constitution, yet the same constitution says those freedoms are subject to laws that are necessary for the maintenance of peace and public safety, etc. The Executives does not have the kind of powers that the courts have. We experts that the media will exercise some form of self-regulation. Unfortunately that doesn’t appear to be happening.
The Ghana Journalists Association has a code of ethic, but it’s completely ignored. Ghana, I guess, has the highest media exposure per capita in the media. For a population of 24 million people living in the size of territory that we have, we have about 250 radio stations. Almost every district in this country has multiple radio stations. In Accra alone, for every micro-centimeter that you tune your radio, you land on another station. And every radio station has something to say. Unfortunately, salaries are low in broadcasting and so most of the radio stations do not really care to get trained journalists to come and work for their establishments because of the low pay. So they just pick anybody who has a talent. |
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(Nana Kwesi)