Party press is dead in Ghana - Prof Karikari

Professor Kwame Karikari, former Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa has reiterated that the era of party press was dead in Ghana.

He said despite several efforts being made by some people to revive some partisan news outlets, the birth of other forms of journalism which made quite significant impacts had overridden their impacts.

Prof Karikari, who is also the Dean of the School of Communication Studies of Wisconsin International University College, Ghana, made the remarks in his presentation on Accra at a public lecture to mark the 70th Anniversary of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) on the theme "Journalism yesterday and today: Repositioning media with technology.

"There is the death of the party press and you still see that some people are trying almost painstakingly to revive the statesman of old and other papers. "I think that essentially the party press is dead. The party press is dead but there is the birth of political radios and the introduction of serial callers, and this is also accentuated by new entrants."

He said people were using the media for propaganda or for the so-called political communication, which was still dominated by personality attacks and insults.

"I think in my estimation, there has been quite some progress in journalism in our time, we can see or we can testify to a number of radio stations whose professionalism can equal any of the best anywhere in the world, I think and you all can attest to that."

Prof Karikari said one of the threats to the media industry was the huge electricity bills owed by most media houses and that if the service providers dared to cut power, it would be a disaster.

He said there was a need for journalists to exercise professionalism as they discharged their duties in order to curb the menace of fake news.



Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, who congratulated the GJA on its 70th Anniversary, urged journalists in the country to uphold professionalism and integrity of their profession.

Mr Affail Monney, the President of the GJA appealed to the government to ensure that killers of the late Ahmed Hussein-Suale, an investigative journalist who was assassinated last year were brought to book.

Madam Elizabeth Ohene, a former Editor of the Daily Graphic, who chaired the function, advised journalists to pay attention to the contents of the publications.

Mr Godwin Avenogbor, the Director of Communications, Melcom Group of Companies appealed to the GJA to recognise and appreciate the sacrifices and contributions of the old guards of the Association.