News on radio not balanced - NMC study

A monitoring exercise of five radio stations in Accra from February 1 to March 11, this year showed that most news items were not balanced, that is, the news did not state the views of relevant key sources.

Whereas all news items monitored on the stations did well on the score of factuality, accuracy, and comprehensiveness, that is, the coverage of all aspects of an issue, most failed the test of balance.

The monitoring exercise was undertaken by the National Media Commission (NMC) and covered Citi FM, Joy FM, Radio Gold, Unique FM, and Oman FM.

News reports of the stations were monitored to find out whether they were factual, had a balance of sources and whether they were comprehensive, among other considerations.

Out of 159 news items on Citi FM during the monitoring period, 25 were on politics; 41 out of 149 news items on Joy FM were political, and 33 out of 106 news items monitored on Radio Gold were also on politics.

Fourteen out of 114 news items monitored on Unique FM were political issues, while Oman FM had 53 political news items out of the 257 news items monitored.

When compared with other news items on issues such as health, human rights and security, the average was about five per cent of all news items, while political issues took about 20 per cent of all issues monitored.

All news items aired on Citi FM, Joy FM, and Oman FM were factual and gave a clear presentation of issues as they really were.

Radio Gold was the only station that had just one out of 106 news items not being factual.
On accuracy, the pattern was repeated; all the monitored stations except Radio Gold had all their news items stating issues in their proper order of occurrence and were accurate.

When it came to the comprehensiveness of issues reported, five of the news items on Citi FM during the monitoring period, seven of the news items on Joy FM, one each of the news items on Radio Gold and Oman FM did not meet that mark.

Source: Daily Graphic