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Press, Power & Politics AFRICA MEDIA FORUM September 27-28, 2000 • Accra, Ghana Board of Trustees PRESS, POWER & POLITICS • AFRICA MEDIA FORUM Charles L. Overby, Chairman Contents Page and Chief Executive Officer Peter S. Prichard, President Ghanaian media face test in covering election 1 Harry W. Brooks Jr. Madelyn P. Jennings Government minister cautions press against ‘reckless sensationalism’ 2 Malcolm R. Kirschenbaum Bette Bao Lord Former U.S. senator urges unifying Ghanaian press Brian Mulroney 2 Jan Neuharth Will Norton Jr. Candidates field questions from press, public 3 John C. Quinn Josefina A. Salas-Porras John Seigenthaler Media scramble to cover crucial Ghanaian elections 4 Paul Simon Ghanaian cartoonists lament their professional isolation and Allen H. Neuharth, Founder vulnerability to lawsuits 6 Editorial: Maurice R. Fliess Net technology making inroads into Ghanaian journalism Rod Sandeen 6 Photos: West African editor: Journalists must cope with ‘government arrogance’ 7 Judy G. Rolfe Map: Freedom Forum opens library for journalists in Mali 8 Grant Jerding The Freedom Forum World Center 1101 Wilson Blvd. Forum in Accra, Ghana, examines coverage Arlington, VA 22209 USA Tel: 703/528-0800 of political campaigns across Africa Fax: 703/284-3529 E-mail: [email protected] The Freedom Forum continued its year- democratic constitution in 1992 set the Internet: www.freedomforum.org long series of international media forums on stage for the blossoming of independent “Press, Power & news organizations to compete against the African Center Politics” Sept. 27-28 state-owned media, which remain strong. 7TH Floor, JHI House in Accra, Ghana. Related training sessions for Ghanaian 11 Cradock Ave. An unprecedent- journalists looked at how the Internet and Rosebank 2196 Johannesburg South Africa ed joint appearance editorial cartooning can be used in political Tel: 27-11-327-0269 by six of the seven coverage. Fax: 27-11-327-0242 candidates in Ghana’s Although the primary focus was on the Dec. 7 presidential host country, the Africa Media Forum also Order publications by phone: election was clearly delved into election reporting by news media The Freedom Forum makes available the highlight. It in three other West African nations – Chris Wells, senior single copies of a wide range of attracted an overflow Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal – as well as conference reports, studies, speeches vice president/ and other publications related to the international of The crowd of 1,400 people Zimbabwe. media, journalism education and the Freedom Forum as well as a vast tele- And, one day after the forum ended in First Amendment. To request a vision and radio Ghana, a Freedom Forum delegation went to publications list call 800/830-3733. audience tuned in across the West African another West African nation, Mali, to open a nation. journalism library in its capital city of Online: Journalists dominated the other panel Bamako. The library is The Freedom The Freedom Forum’s online news discussions, which examined how the print Forum’s second in Africa and the 15th in its service, free!, is on the Internet at www.freedomforum.org. This service is media, broadcasters and journalistic organi- network on four continents. a timely source of information about free zations are responding to the challenge of Previous 2000 forums on “Press, Power & press, free speech, free spirit and covering not only the multiparty presiden- Politics” were held in Lima, Peru, in March journalism issues worldwide. tial-election campaign but also races for the and in London in June. The series will con- Ghanaian Parliament. The adoption of a clude in Hong Kong in November. Ghanaian media face test in covering election Ghana, a West African country of power in a coup d’etat in June 1979. He owned media still have the widest reach. ancient kingdoms and the first independent turned the country over to civilian rule International observers say Ghana has a African republic three months later but returned to power in mixed record on press freedom. “Although in modern history, another coup in December 1981. the 1992 constitution guarantees media has vibrant news In 1992 a new constitution was adopted. freedom, the government legally circum- media that are Under it Rawlings was twice elected presi- vents it,” according to Freedom House, a actively covering a dent but is barred from seeking a third four- New York-based foundation that monitors landmark political year term. The constitution also guaranteed press freedom. event in the freedom of expression and established a The Media Foundation of West Africa, nation’s history – National Media a multiparty presi- Commission with dential-election members from dif- “There was a time when we campaign for an ferent segments of Jerelyn Eddings, director of The Freedom Forum open seat. society to “insulate couldn’t write anything critical of African Center Across the the state-owned country, radio sta- media” from gov- the government. … There is much tions are broad- ernment interfer- casting political ence. more freedom now.” information, panel What followed —Bob Bentil, editor, The Ghanaian Times discussions, talk was a blossoming of shows and phone- private newspapers and radio in a country an Accra-based group, said that between in programs about where news had been dominated by the August 1995 and December 1997, 62 libel the Dec. 7 elec- state-owned media – Daily Graphic, The cases were filed against newspapers in tion. Newspapers, Ghanaian Times and the Ghana Accra. Politicians and political parties filed too, are dominat- Broadcasting Corp. 70% of the cases. ed by political Today, Ghana boasts 32 newspapers circu- Despite difficulties, the media climate Joan Mower, news, with head- lating in the capital city of Accra alone and has improved greatly, some journalists say. director/African and lines provoking several more in other major cities such as “There was a time when we couldn’t write Latin American programs frequent discus- Kumasi, center of the ancient Ashanti king- anything critical of the government,” said of The Freedom Forum sion about the dom. There are also 27 FM stations that broad- Bob Bentil, editor of the government-owned successor to President Jerry John Rawlings, cast in the country, where 35% of the 19 million Ghanaian Times. “Now we can. There is a former air force flight lieutenant who has people cannot read. But the government- much more freedom now.” led Ghana for the past 19 years. British colonialists, missionaries and corporations owned the first newspapers in the former colony known as the Gold Coast. Ghana: media overview for Ghanaians, more than a third of whom When Ghana gained independence in 1957, are illiterate. Kwame Nkrumah, the nation’s first presi- I News media in Ghana include both inde- I Ghana’s official language is English. Local dent, embarked on a program of pendently owned newspapers and broad- African languages are also used. cast stations, and state-owned media. “Africanization.” Nkrumah’s one-party I The government-owned Ghana Broadcasting socialist government established the Ghana I Despite what appears to be an open climate Corp. was the sole radio and television News Agency and started the Ghana for the media, vigilance is a watchword for broadcaster until 1994. Today scores of Institute of Journalism to train Africans to free-press advocates. Freedom House’s privately owned radio stations fill the tell their own stories and promote the con- 1999 survey on press freedom rated airwaves, but the GBC remains dominant. cept of African liberation. But virtually all Ghana’s press as “not free.” In 1999 the GBC Television, known as GTV, is also news outlets were state-owned and state- Committee to Protect Journalists said dominant, though it faces increasing controlled. Independent journalism, and Ghana has a “repressive legal climate.” competition from private channels. with it, freedom of expression, ceased to I Only two of the three dozen or so regularly Sources: The Times of London, April 18, 2000; exist during the Nkrumah dictatorship, published newspapers are dailies, and both “Press, Power and Politics: Ghana,” report pre- which was toppled by the military in 1966. are state-owned: the Daily Graphic and The pared for The Freedom Forum, September For more than two decades, tensions Ghanaian Times. 2000; The World Factbook page on Ghana, U.S. flared between the media and the military I Radio is the dominant source of information Central Intelligence Agency, September 2000. rulers who controlled the country for all but two years, 1979-81. Rawlings first took PRESS, POWER & POLITICS: AFRICA 1 Government minister cautions press against ‘reckless sensationalism’ Ghanaian journalists cannot afford to Those countries can tolerate some news out- copy some of the “reckless sensationalism” lets that thrive on sensationalism and scan- that characterizes the media in developed dal. “But we cannot afford this here,” countries such as the United States, John Mahama said. Mahama, Ghana’s minister of communica- Ghana, a young democracy, is still learn- tions, said in a keynote address for the Africa ing the ways of a government by the people, Media Forum on “Press, Power & Politics.” he said. But for centuries, a spirit of consen- “The social cost would be too great,” he sus in the decision-making process has Minister of Communications John Mahama said. existed in the Ghanaian way of life, he says the line between information and opinion Mahama said Ghana’s news media are added. is not always clear. free and independent, and wield power that “How do we define freedom for our peo- can be used to promote national unity and ple in the face of adverse world economic Ghana’s 1992 constitution. Sometimes, he stability and to educate the public about conditions we face?” he asked the more than said, the line between information and opin- social and economic issues.