‘Culture of silence’: Gov’t has not forced people not to speak – Ursula Owusu tells Sam Jonah

Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Communication and Digitalization Minister, has reacted to Sir Sam Jonah’s comment about a “self-imposed culture of silence” where people do not feel the need to speak about things happening in the country.

According to her, the government has not forced people not to speak about things happening in the country but rather it is what she describes as “self-censorship” of the individual regarding the subject to talk about.

Speaking on Asempa FM on Tuesday, April 27, 2021, monitored by GhanaWeb, the Ablekuma West MP said, “I don’t think people are no longer talking...it is not the government that is preventing people not to speak either by force or coercion or fear or intimidation. There is a multiplicity of channels in which people express themselves. In the past, it was only the TV and radio stations as well as the newspapers that people feel to express their views, today, everybody can express his or herself provided he or she has a smart device and publish it globally on Social Media.”

“Who is preventing who? Maybe we don’t understand the definition of culture of silence and maybe that is where the conversation should start. What do we mean by a culture of silence?” she quizzed.

“In those days, you are afraid to talk. We fear those in power, so, your thoughts remain in your head. Opening your mouth to speak about issues, the next minute, where you sleep changes, if you are not lucky, you won’t return to your family.

“So, the fear to speak which is enforced by the state was what was keeping people from talking; is that the same situation he [Sam Jonah] is speaking about?” Ursula Owusu-Ekuful questioned further.

She added, “his use of the culture of silence, I don’t really understand. It is like comparing apples and oranges; if it is the same situation, we were under the military regime which made Adu Boahen’s and PV Ansah’s challenge the status quo, which coercive power of the state is preventing people from criticizing the government?”

Owusu-Ekuful said, critics are around and they speak with the next decision the government takes.

“Whether it is good or bad, they will have something to say about it,” she stressed.

Sam Jonah KBE had bemoaned that the Ghanaian media landscape was highly polarized and partisan because it was owned by politicians, something that has hindered the independence and objectivity of the media.

In his address to Rotarians in Accra under the theme; ‘Down the Up Escalator: Reflections on Ghana’s Future by a Senior Citizen on April 22, 2021, the business mogul said:

“Our media landscape is so polarized and partisan. There is hardly any objectivity because a lot of the media stations are owned by politicians whose interest is in swaying voters one way or the other. Independent media practice seems to have faded and journalism has become a conveyor belt for political propaganda, insults, and acrimony.”

Sir Jonah asked, “What is the status of the role of the media in holding the executive, judiciary, and legislature accountable as the fourth estate of the realm? Is it enough to just report issues? Where are the investigations? Where are the facts?

These are hard questions that the media must ask and reassess its role in reshaping our country’s future."

Sir Jonah added that in the past, “when all had failed, academia was the last vanguard. We all remember the role that the Legon Observer played. Under the hallowed cloak of academic freedom, men and women of conscience could write and speak words that penetrated the halls of power.”

He continued: “It appears to me that in recent times in our fourth Republican dispensation, the courage to stand up for the truth and the determination to uphold the common good is lost. In our dark moments as a nation, it is concerning that the voices of the intellectuals are receding into oblivion. Sadly, it is a consequence of the deep partisan polarization of our country such that everything is seen through the lenses of politics.

It appears to me that the culture of silence has returned. This time not enforced by legal and military power but through convenience, parochialism, hypocrisy and lack of conviction. Where are our Adu Boahens and PAV Ansahs?”