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Communications expert and Dean of Communication Studies at the Wisconsin University Professor Kwame Karikari has disagreed with Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II that Ghanaian media houses should ban all political activities on their platforms until after the elections in November.
The Asantehene feared that politicians would heighten tensions through the media, thus his advice. He suggested that academicians and experts be engaged instead.
Prof Karikari, however, said though it was important that peace be maintained during the season, the media had a social responsibility to accurately report all political activities, irrespective of content.
“The way to get political parties and their candidates to campaign on issues is for the media to be more critical in reporting what the politicians say in the campaign, for the media to try and drive the agenda by raising those critical developmental issues for the politicians and the parties to respond to, and, thirdly, by the voters themselves raising questions to the political parties,” he told Class News’ Atiewin Mbillah in an interview.
He disagreed with the Asantehene’s suggestions that the media agree a voluntary ban on political discussions to create a politics-free environment in which the political leaders will relate to each other in the spirit of comradeship and true sportsmanship.
“I do not understand it. The elections are about our choices among political parties and politicians. If we do not cover the politicians, how do the public get to know what the politicians stand for and to vote for them? So, I am not too sure that that is what the Asantehene meant. But, if he meant that the media must black out politicians whose statements are provocative or are inciting and divisive, I will still beg to say that the antidote to such political misdeeds is not solving it in the quiet but exposing these kinds of things,” Prof Karikari stated.
Professor Karikari urged the media to report whatever politicians would say on their platforms to enable the electorate make an informed decision on who to vote for.
“I think that the media has a responsibility to report what every politician says on their platforms. That way we will know who is saying what and deal with it. If we cover it up because we are afraid that those statements will inflate passions and so on, we don’t do ourselves any good because they will say it anyway. It is only by putting what the politicians say in the public domain that will make the public decide whether this politician is somebody we want to lead our society or not.”
