Is The Government Using BNI To Start A War Of Attrition Against The Media?

So the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) arrested a journalist/media professional for allegedly reporting a false story—related to the ruling NDC government—that has no potential to threaten the security of the nation? Clearly, the news of the arrest of the CEO of Accra-based Citi FM Mr. Samuel Attah-Mensah came as a shock to all those who thought Ghana's political culture has forever cross the threshold of backwardness.

It also exposes the Mahama-led administration's mortal disdain for the freedom of expression under Ghana's fragile representative democracy. For all intents and purposes, the BNI's brief detention of Mr. Attah-Mensah and Ransford Tetteh, including their subsequent incommunicado, was a clear signal that the present government is bent on chipping away the vibrancy of Ghana's press through the secret war of attrition.

The point is why a major government security agency such as BNI shows any interest in an issue of this nature? Needless to say, what aspect of Ghana's national security was undermined as a result of the inaccurate story carried by the Citi FM leading to the detention of its CEO? If the ruling government is really serious about ethical practices, why doesn't the regime consistently use the BNI to investigate corruption and other white-collar crimes that have eaten deep into the fabrics of the state agencies?

In fact, the Mahama government would be on the right side of history by sincerely pushing the BNI to deploy all the resources at its disposal to arrest and question state looters instead of detaining media practitioners for filing false news reports. Was it because the Citi FM's news report implicated the NDC hence the government is (mis) using the state security apparatus to intimidate and put the “fear of God” into any media outlet that publishes an incriminating story about the ruling government?

In a shameful attempt at defending an indefensible, President John Mahama speaking at a national conference on broadcast pluralism in Accra, argued among others that the growing ethical breaches by some Ghanaian media houses led to the government/BNI's bizarre involvement of Mr. Attah-Mensah and Ransford Tetteh's arrest and interrogation. This lame justification of the journalists' arrest by the BNI raises two fundamental questions: what kind of ethical violations Mr. Mahama is referring to here? Does the Ghana's Constitution give the president the prosecutorial powers to use the state security bodies to detain and question journalists or members of the press for what the government considers to be ethical breaches?

Ethics deal with values, belief systems, including moral precepts via which people in societies judge right from wrong. More importantly, ethics provide civilized societies with critical benchmarks vis-à-vis everyday decisions they make on individual and career levels, as well as on how they perceive others' actions. Thus, the concept of ethics helps us understand or conclude that a news reporter who fails to double-check his/her sources before publication is not approaching his/her job in an ethical manner. Similarly, a public figure such as the president of a democratic country, who uses the power of his office to intimidate or attempt to silence dissenting views from the media without the due process of the law is also guilty of “ethical violations.” By hiding behind the BNI to arrest or question reporters/journalists, the Mahama's regime has not only displayed blatant contempt for contemporary democracy powered by the media, but also it has shown its strong appetite for tyrannical usurpation of constitutional power.

At any rate, what is the purpose of the existence of the National Media Commission (NMC) or the courts of law? If a “publication lacked proper research and fact-finding” as President Mahama contended, why not present the raw facts to the NMC or Ghanaian public and let the facts speak for themselves? Regarding the Citi FM's episode, any sanely democratic-minded executive branch of the government would first challenge the veracity of the supposedly false story while demanding that the “offending” media outlet retract and apologize for the slanderous information if a lawsuit is to be avoided. This is not a suggestion that the media must always be given a golden parachute for a soft landing whenever they deceive the public with inaccurate information. Sure, the media must always realize that they have social as well as ethical responsibilities in their effort to carry out their constitutional obligations in democratic society. That is why they must weave ethical standards into their profession at all times to gain credibility. The right to freedom of expression must be placed within the same wavelength with the responsibility to speak or write ethically. Nonetheless, it is instructive to note that the citizens and the media's right to free speech must never be compromised under pressure from any group of people.

As the Soviet Union-era writer and a Nobel Winner Aleksander Solzhenitsyn noted, “Woe to that nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nation's heart, the excision of its memory.” And our own Wole Soyinka has also opined that "Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress truth." Indeed, mass media are the central nervous system of genuine representative democracy.

Use all subtle ways to try to undermine the media's information gathering and dissemination mechanisms, and true democracy is paralyzed from the waist down. One wonders, though, if Mr. Mahama will also use the BNI to apprehend or question media practitioners whenever they address him with an imperial title as “His Excellency” instead of his bona fides title of simply “Mr. President?” Yea, when the media pamper the public officials we hardly hear complaints.

In short, the earlier President Mahama discourages these kinds of “night visits” to reporters' homes/offices by the state covert agencies, the better for the president's legacy with regard to his sincere commitments to the promotion of democratic governance in Ghana. Any war of attrition waged by the government against the heartbeat of democracy (mass media) will be suicidal proposition.

Bernard Asubonteng is a blogger and media analyst based in Atlanta, GA. He can be reached at: [email protected] or visit his weblog: www.globalpulpit.com