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Journalists don`t understand Whistleblower`s Act

By Phyllis D. Osabutey - Ghanaian Chronicle
Fri, 03 Jul 2009 | Print | E-Mail | PDF | Graphics Version
General News

THE ACTING Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Ms. Anna Bossman, has said the media does not seem to really understand the Whistle Blower's Act, which was evident in their reportage of the case involving the former Minister of Sports, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, and the Principal Accountant, Mr. Adim Oddom, who reportedly blew the whistle over a scandal involving the minister.

She said this was further evident from questions some members of the media often asked, especially as to whether the interdiction of Mr. Oddom and the Chief Director would not discourage others from blowing the whistle on corrupt public officials.

According to her, “you cannot ask those questions just like that,” saying, the media must first try to understand why the two officials were interdicted, because the fact that a person is the first to make a report, would not mean that he or she was telling the truth.

Ms. Bossman was responding to questions at one-day human rights workshop organised by the Commission for journalists in Accra on Tuesday, where she said the law must be published in the newspapers for the public to appreciate its content.

Though she said she was not familiar with the details of the Muntaka case, she believed the verdict was reached, based on the work done by the Presidential Committee, which looked into the conduct of all the parties, hence she could not make any definite pronouncements on the matter.

However, speaking in general terms, she said the Whistle Blower's Act, which seeks to protect people who provide information leading to the detection of corruption, provides a list of organisations, including CHRAJ, where one could go to blow a whistle, and receive protection.

Also, the report must be about something that was already going on, about to go on, or had already gone on, and when one gives such information to any of the relevant institutions under the law, the whistle blower would receive some form of confidentiality, she noted.

This, she pointed out, affords the blower a hidden identity from the public, employers or individual he was accusing, and also afford the institution, especially the Commission, about sixty days to conduct its investigations.

She said within this period, the blower was not supposed to go to the media with the information, since by such an action, he or she would be blowing his or her own cover. According to her, there were also instances when whistleblowers themselves did not have clean hands, but this notwithstanding, they could still be afforded some form of protection.

She observed that whistle-blowing was voluntary, and cautioned that those who provided false information, or with ulterior motives, were also likely to put themselves into serious trouble, advising that people must have just or clean motives for blowing the whistle on others.

Asked whether the Principal Accountant would not have been interdicted had he made the report to CHRAJ, she said that would have depended on the facts of the case.

Touching on human rights reportage by journalists, the Acting Commissioner indicated that journalists and media practitioners had to develop a greater interest in human rights issues, because “human rights is everyone's business.”

“Reporting on human rights is peculiar than the normal stories, because with human rights, you have to go behind the story to help the public understand the concept of human rights in the story,” she noted, stressing, “looking at the story behind the story, is the essence of human rights reportage.”

In her opinion, journalists must not report sensational stories just because they sell, but educate readers on the importance of human rights to the linkage it has with corruption and administrative justice.

The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr. Ransford Tetteh, encouraged journalists to continue to report on human rights, even if their stories are not promoted, and asked the Commission to extend its training to editors, since they are those who take the decisions concerning stories.

He also urged journalists to go beyond stories to writing features of human rights interest, since that stood a greater chance of being used, saying, “human rights are the things that affect our daily lifestyle and development.”

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