Be fair and balance in your reportage – NMC to media

Mr Kabral Blay Amihere, Chairman of National Media Commission (NMC) on Thursday asked the media to stick to the professional elements of truth, fairness, balance and equity.

Speaking at a ceremony to present a report on District Level Elections (DLE) Media Monitoring Project in Accra, organised by NMC, he noted that the media has the power to set the agenda for the public to develop interest in the DLE by making information on the process available to them.

He urged political parties, media executives, and educational institutions, to be interested in the findings of the project in order to facilitate positive change.

The report revealed that only two per cent of time, space and agenda were given to DLE on television while 71 per cent was given to the National Democratic Congress (NDC), 22 per cent to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and six per cent to the other political parties.

The study also disclosed that the 2015 African Cup of Nations saw very significant reportage from television as more than half of the sports stories focused on it.

Also, radio which is the most popular and accessible media gave 57 per cent of time and coverage to the NDC, 36 per cent to the NPP and seven per cent to the other political parties while only one per cent was dedicated to DLE issues.

Mr Koshin Aden, Media Analyst and Technical Advisor said the 11- day project revealed that the tone of coverage of political parties by television stations was 100 per cent neutral.

“However, local language radio stations seemed to be more inclined toward embellishing stories to create a positive or negative tone on the political actors and parties.

“Similarly, the tone of media coverage in newspapers was fairly neutral,” he noted.

Mr Aden expressed dissatisfaction on the coverage of DLE issues in the newspapers.

He said: DLE issues were not covered at all on front pages of newspapers since they were busily spread with news on missing Metro Mass Transit buses, misapplication of public funds by National Service Scheme and allegations of rape by popular broadcaster; Kwasi Kyei Darkwa, which was very unhelpful to the nation.