Media safety under threat in Ghana — Survey

A national survey in 2021 and 2023 under the former President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, and former Vice President Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia has exposed an alarming state of media safety in Ghana.

This has prompted calls for the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the Ghana Police Service, and the government to take proactive measures to protect media personnel.

The study was conducted by Professor Justice Tankebe and Dr. Emmanuel Sowatey, both of the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom and was recently launched at a public event in Accra.

The research analyzed data collected from two waves of online surveys. The first, which comprised 122 media personnel, was completed in 2021, and to track changes in their experiences, 101 personnel completed the same survey in 2023.

At a recent event organized to launch the report, Dr. Sowatey explained that the study showed threats to the safety of media personnel were multidimensional threats, ranging from physical attacks, theft, threatening messages, and pressure to avoid some stories.

He said across both waves, half of all personnel reported receiving phone threats for doing the work.

Dr. Sowatey said the research also found that 28.9 percent of those studied reported being physically attacked in public in 2021; this increased to 35.4 percent in 2023.

He said between 24.5 percent in 2023 and 28.4 percent in 2021 were victims of robbery due to their work, stressing that the study also showed that 36.8 percent of personnel nearly lost their jobs in 2021, declining slightly to 29.3 percent in 2023.

However, the most common experiences concerned pressure to ‘kill’ stories: between 65.3 percent in 2021 and 66.7 percent in 2023 reported being pressured to suppress stories.

“We also found that many media personnel worked in a culture of fear,” Dr. Sowatey stated.

He said the data showed that “a little over half, 51.7 percent, of those surveyed feared being attacked for doing their work in 2021; this reduced slightly to 46.9 percent in 2023.”

According to the researchers, other media personnel expressed fear of threats against their families: 37.8 percent in 2021 and 36.1 percent in 2023.

There was widespread fear about being victims of robbery, with 43.9 percent in 2021 and 41.6 percent in 2023; domestic burglary—34.2 percent in 2021 and 33.9 percent in 2023; and threats—47.5 percent in 2021 and 48.9 in 2023.

Dr. Sowatey noted that 45.2 percent of media personnel worked in fear of losing their jobs in 2023, a decrease from 45.2 percent in 2021.

The study also found that media personnel had very low confidence in key institutions to protect them.

Specifically, 37.9 percent of those surveyed in 2023 expressed confidence in the Ghana Police Service to investigate crimes against media personnel.

The proportion of those who had confidence in the Ghana Journalist Association was 37.9 percent; however, they were more confident that their employers would protect them, with 60.7 percent expressing this confidence in 2023 compared to 63.5 percent in 2021.

The researchers suggested various measures to address the situation, including the Ghana Police Service establishing a media safety unit to tackle threats against media personnel.

The new government under President John Dramani Mahama and Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyeman should enact new legislation on crimes against media personnel.

The researchers also called on the GJA to offer media personnel safety training and legal assistance.