Journalism with Conscience, Answers from Anas Aremeyaw Anas

Kwabena Brako-Powers & Iris Norkor Akwetey

In his works, Anas Aremeyaw Anas as a journalist has exhibited quite a number of components that form the heart of journalism. Journalism has often been said to be a, “storytelling with a purpose.” However, there is no value in such a story telling if it has no speck of truth in it. From the, “Inside Ghana’s Madhouse Undercover in Ghana’s biggest psychiatric hospital” in January, 2010 to the record breaking, “Ghana In The Eyes Of God”- Ghana’s Judicial Scandal on September 23rd 2015, one can significantly bear witness to one of the world’s finest investigative works. This investigative works have won Anas Aremeyaw Anas worldwide accolade with President Barack Obama highlighting his virtues in a speech during his 2009 visit to Ghana in which he said, "An independent press. A vibrant private sector. A civil society. Those are the things that give life to democracy. We see that spirit in courageous journalists like Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who risked his life to report the truth.”

Going beyond Assumptions:

“Assumption,” as a veteran bureau chief once put it, “is the mother of all screw-ups.” All the notable investigative works of Anas showed how much he made use of participation as a tool of qualitative researching. There was no room for assumptions, though contestable. His team goes to the ground, live among the culprits and innocent of the society. They engage in all necessary activities that could lead to the potential truth. The Tiger Eye team touches all bases. There is systematism. At least we can say that the team outperformed the expectation of David Protess. David Protess, the president of the Chicago Innocence Project, a nonprofit investigative reporting group that exposes wrongful convictions and other problems of the criminal justice system. Protess used the cases as a tool for teaching journalism students the importance of verifying presumed facts. Among the lessons: Assume nothing is true.

Journalism Sense:

We cannot forget one major purpose of journalism which is to provide the citizens with the needed information in order to assist them to make the best possible decisions and choices about their lives, their communities, their societies and their governments. It is the journalist’s priority to offer quality information to the people in such a way that they can assess it and make their own mind. This brings meaning to the democracy of the country. However, the result of several journalism works in the country is dastardly to the disappointment of the practitioners.

Could it be true?

Just like any other discipline, public criticism is never a tool to be overlooked, journalism is no different. Anas as a journalist has been absurdly criticized to use spiritual powers for his investigative works, though not adequately proven. He has been accused of reporting nothing but fabrications. He has been denigrated for dragging his country’s reputation into the mad. Through it all, his works has stood the test of time; he has defended his works honorably in court with indisputable evidence. He has won more awards nationally and internationally from 2008 to 2014. He has been rewarded with more contracts both home and abroad to help, ‘name, shame and jail’ the evil pests in our society.

Redefining Journalism for national development:

Part of the journalist’s responsibility is to provide information such that it would appeal to their audience leading to change of behavior and development. The quality of these stories would be assessed by how much it engages the audience resulting in quality life. Topics have to go beyond government and public safety. This raises the quality of the work and prevents monotony of the topics. The CEO of “Tiger Eye Private Investigations” and his team have gone to a large extent to fulfill this component of journalism with a variety of investigative works across the globe.

Journalism for the future:

The future of journalism is tarred with conscience where practitioners would not be motivated by their egoist gains or the weight of their pocket, but rather the development of their constituencies. We cannot pretend all is well when we could do a lot to change our misfortune especially in Ghana and Africa. Journalism has come a long way with a good number of pieces to build it up to become an enormous study. As such many journalists are also raising the standard of this study by their precise, concise, genuine and democratic approach to handling it. We must confess that we are proud that Africa and Ghana for that matter is not left out with journalists like Anas and co. participating in this endeavors.