Media Ethics: Talk Shows on Pro-Partisan Radio Stations Breeding Grounds for Violations

Pro-NPP Oman FM’s morning show and Pro-NDC Power FM’s political talk show programmes recorded the highest number of media ethics violations for the period of February 16-28, 2021.

Oman FM’s morning show, National Agenda, which is hosted by Yaw Amofa recorded the highest counts of violations (18), followed by Power FM’s Inside Politics show hosted by Mugabe Maase, recording (12) counts of violations. These two programmes were noted for allowing politicians to use their platform to trade invectives and use indecent language on air whilst making submissions on topical political issues.

These observations were made by the ethics monitoring project of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) which monitored 26 news organisations made up of 10 Akan language radio stations, 10 newspapers and six news websites. A total of 960 pieces of content from the 26 organisations were monitored and analysed during the period, February 16-28, 2021. Out of the 960 pieces of content, 90 ethical violations were recorded.

Generally, radio stations were noted for being the worst perpetrators of media ethics, recording 52 out of the 90 violations during the period of monitoring. Among other things, there was a high infraction of the principle of Decency. This was owing to the increase in verbal attacks and the exchange of insults among political opponents.

The monitoring of media ethics is part of a project titled: Enhancing media professionalism to inspire public confidence and support for press freedom in Ghana being implemented with funding support from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The objective of the project is to identify and highlight incidents of ethical infractions and draw attention to such breaches as a way of fostering adherence to ethical principles by media organisations.

The full report contains the specific ethical principles violated, the names of the media outlets that committed the violations, among other findings.

Click here to access the full report. The instrument being used for the monitoring, which contains the category definitions for tracking and reporting of ethical principles is also available here.

For further clarifications and media interviews, contact the Programme Manager, Abigail Larbi-Odei (0244867047) or Programme Officer, Kwaku Krobea Asante (0249484528).