Former Chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Nana Kwasi Gyan Apenteng, has emphasized the importance of media houses adhering to high standards to promote responsible and ethical journalism.
He acknowledges that while media houses may have varying ideological and political interests, it is essential for regulators to establish standards or conventions to guide their practices.
Mr Apenteng believes that setting standards is crucial not only for media organizations but also for individual journalists committed to upholding ethical principles in their work.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Change Speaker Series VII on Saturday, May 11, he said, “So that we know the difference between news and opinion. So that when we are reporting, say a rally, if it’s an NDC rally, the NPP press won’t say that the numbers were small and say all the negative things. We, the public, may not even know what was actually said at the rally because that is not their interest. Their interest is to denigrate the events and then take our minds off from whatever may have been said and vice versa.”
He suggests that creating standards for news reporting that prioritize ethical values would help distinguish between news, opinion, and commentary.
“So when we are able to set these standards and show that, in news reporting, if the number is 100 across board for everybody, it’s the same as reporting a football match. So once we have trained the sports writers, they may support Hearts or Kotoko, but if the match is reported, the report is the same. The goal was scored in the 54th minute, they are not going to say, it was scored in the 30th minute because that’s what you wish would have happened. And then after that, you can use other interviews and all that to establish other opinions.”
He suggested that media houses should prioritize providing specialized training to a select number of journalists who can serve as election experts.
“If we know that over a period of time, we have trained people who we know will become our eyes and ears within the media houses and they take pride in saying that, the same way as we have got financial reporters and they are very faithful about what they are doing, we need to train some people, not only as political reporters but as election reporting specialists.
“I’m saying this because the objective of the training must be that in the end, the peace that we want to prevail, the fairness that we want to prevail will become their objective.”