State-owned media must be apolitical - Owusu-Ankomah

THE MINORITY Spokesman on Communications and NPP member of Parliament for Sekondi, Honourable Papa Owusu, has urged the state-owned media to establish a code of conduct to guide their reportage of political activities. He has also called on journalists to be apolitical in their coverage of issues.

Owusu-Ankomah said a code on coverage of political activities is essential if the act of covering purely partisan campaigns clothed in national assignments, such as last Saturday's meeting of ACDRs at Tamale by Vice-President John Evans Atta Mills, is to be avoided.

"They should never cover such partisan functions. That was a purely partisan event, yet GTV took the camera and followed him to the North", he said, arguing that such misuse of the taxpayers' property becomes a fertile ground for political conflicts in an election year. "These are matters that raise tension and incur people's anger".

The Sekondi MP was speaking on the "Importance Of The Media In Elective Politics" at a five-day course on "Election Reporting" for media personnel in Accra last Wednesday.

He said the state-owned media should strive to divorce partisan politicking from the state duties of government functionaries. A... Practitioners in the state-owned media should be able to draw a distinction between the role of government functionaries engaged in purely partisan political activity and their role as government functionaries (performing state duties).

"While one must admit that the line of distinction may be blurred on certain occasions, there are others which are so blatant and obvious that any fair-minded person ought to see it as such", he stressed. Owusu-Ankomah said it is against the background of the misuse of the state owned media by Ghanaian governments that the framers of the 1992 Constitution in Article 163 (4) barred the government from subjecting the media to control or interference. It is for the same reason that editors were protected from harassment for their editorial opinions and the content of their publications, the MP pointed out.

He said the state-owned media must therefore deviate from the perception that it is under the thumb of the ruling government. Continuing his call for an apolitical media, he enjoined journalists to strive towards a professional and responsible media practice. He noted that since media men thrive on their credibility, they should strive to avoid a conflict of interest and shy away from pandering to the dictates of their political leanings.