Studio Lights To Blind TV Presenters In Ghana

It is an undeniable fact that every profession one chooses in this world, comes with a level of risk or hazard attached to it.

That`s what explains why labour laws make provisions for security to workers on the kind of jobs they do to survive. The police service and people in the military always have to protect themselves to avoid being killed by unscrupulous people with guns and weapons.

One area many people might think it is hazard free is the media: commonly referred to as journalism. Of course, because of the pleasure and fame associated with the profession, many consider the people in that sector to be without problems. I am taking this opportunity to say in this column that, we have serious problems, but why tell the whole world your problem when indeed the people cannot help you out.

Watching Henry Asante Twum of GTV sports department over the weekend presenting a live show, I observed a continuous blinking of the eye which was not usual of him when he started broadcasting. He was also not wearing glasses (spectacles) when I started seeing him on Tv. Unfortunately, he blinks very seriously currently and wears glasses too, so the question of what is really happening to him kept running through my mind without answers.

To get to the roots of the problem and to verify whether they are really suffering from the profession they really love, Flex newspaper decided to speak with some big names in television news business for their input. In a phone interview with an ace female television personality who works for GTV, she told this writer that indeed they are being affected by the lights being used in the newsroom and in most of their programme sets. So what is really the problem that makes them blink continuously like that?

“Sometimes it is the light and sometimes too it is the mannerism the person hosting the programmes wants to send out to his or her audience. The lights are really affecting our eyes and it is a serious hazard to our profession. Personally, I started wearing glasses because of the lights in the newsroom.

Fact is that, those lights are old and need to be replaced with new ones which are not disastrous. I am a victim of this light issue so I know what I am talking about. Else where in the foreign land, the operators regulate the lights so it can work perfectly for the eyes. Over here, it is far from that and if care is not taken many Tv presenters will go blind in the near future. We are just not doing something right here in Ghana” she told Flex newspaper anonymously.

It can be recalled that popular actor Kofi Adu aka Agya Koo issued a working condition to movie producers and directors, saying that he will never shoot any movie again after 6pm which will involve shooting with high lights. His explanation was that, his doctor has warned him to restrict the way he exposes his eyes to high lights which can make him go blind in the near future. Since then, Agya Koo has been working with that condition and he seems to be okay.

Some big names who have been observed to be victims of this hazard include Kwabena Yeboah of Gtv sports, Gifty Anti Gtv, Henry Asante Twum Gtv, Nana Aba Anamoah Tv3 and Yaw Sakyi of Tv Africa`s Run Down.