The Occasion Of World Press Freedom Day 2015

The 2015 World Press Freedom Day is being celebrated worldwide on the theme ‘Let Journalism Thrive! Towards Better Reporting, Gender Equality and Safety in the Digital Age’. This provides yet another opportunity to applaud the Ghanaian media for their valiant efforts to demand transparent and accountable governance from our public authorities. The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) also wishes to use this opportunity to encourage the country’s media to step up its efforts to ensure that the expression of voice by citizens commensurate accountability and responsiveness from the government and other public authorities.

A majority of Ghanaians (55 percent) expressed strong endorsement for press freedom in the latest Afrobarometer survey (2014). The same survey, nearly 7 in 10 Ghanaians, rated the Ghanaian media as effective in revealing government’s mistakes and corruption. This finding is consistent with the Reporters without Borders’ recently released Press Freedom Index in which press freedom in Ghana has moved up by five percentage points from number 27 in 2014 to 22 in 2015 (with a score of 15.5).

While commending and congratulating the Ghanaian media for its impressive contributions to the development of the country’s democracy on this occasion of World Press Freedom Day, CDD-Ghana implores our journalists not to relent in asserting their independence and creating more spaces for the voices of citizens.

CDD-Ghana is fully convinced that the interest of press freedom is best served when there is maximum transparency, equity, and accountability in the allocation of electronic media frequencies. It therefore wishes to use this occasion to reiterate its deep concern with the opacity that continues to surround the processes around frequency allocation in Ghana and the real risk it poses for our airways to be used in advancing the interest of only a few individuals, rather than being managed as a public resource.

CDD-Ghana also notes with concern the great challenges that applicants for frequencies to operate community radio stations continue to face, especially as the regional capitals are chocked with frequencies. The Center would like to see more equity in the distribution of frequencies to provide adequate voice to disadvantaged communities and help them meet their developmental goals.

On the occasion of global Press Freedom Day, CDD-Ghana calls on the National Communications Authority to be fully transparent in the allocation of in a manner consistent with Article 162 (3) of the 1992 Constitution.

For further information, please contact CDD-Ghana on: [email protected] or on 0302-776142/763029

Saturday, May 2, 2015