"Blame Parliament for reckless media" – MFWA

The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah has disagreed with Ghana’s Speaker of parliament for suggesting there be stricter control on the Ghanaian media.

Edward Doe Adjaho recently made the suggestion at a public event in the Volta region and asked the National Media Commission to start “biting” as a way of controlling “reckless” journalism, which in his view, has festered ever since the criminal libel law was repealed in 2001. However, Braimah blames Parliament for the apparent “reckless journalism” being witnessed recently.

He told Starr News in an interview Monday that Parliament cannot absolve itself of blame for the unprofessional journalism practice which the Speaker is bemoaning.

“His institution failed to pass a Broadcasting Law, and the Access to Information legislation in this country. That legislation is the most empowering tool when it comes to democracy and citizen’s participation,” he said.

In the Speaker’s own words, “after the repeal of the criminal libel laws in this country, it appears the spirit of the amended legislation has been lost. The repeal of the criminal libel law has made citizens, sections of the media and journalists reckless and unprofessional in their work.”

But Braimah said the Speaker’s argument points out the flaws in the system.

“If you have somebody from the same institution that is to ensure that things are done rightly complain about the things that they have failed to ensure are in place to make things right, then I think it is very, very unfortunate.

“Parliament as an institution is also losing its credibility and the support that it had originally, just as the media is also losing the public support and credibility that the public ascribes to it,” he said. Braimah, however, called for a more transparent system which allows information to flow freely.

“Up till now, how many people know how much the Chinese refurbishment cost? Parliament never made it known. So if you do this and the media are left to speculate it, then you turn around and say that we need to re-introduce the criminal libel law.”

“Parliament has not demonstrated that it is an institution that truly represents the people.”