Ghana : Media and Democracy in 50 Years of Independence

By Her Excellency Margaret Ivy Amoakohene, Ghana High Commissioner to Canada

INTRODUCTION
There is a veritable connection between democracy, political participation, and good governance. Similarly, there are linkages between journalism (the mass media) and politics in the Gold Coast (colonial Ghana). The press played a seminal role in the struggle for independence, which ultimately resulted in the liberation of the Gold Coast from colonialism.

INTRODUCTION
Throughout Africa, the mass media have played a useful role either to ensure the practice of democracy or to safeguard it against abuse. This presentation focuses on the interface between the mass media and democracy in Ghana since the attainment of independence in 1957.

INTRODUCTION
It attempts to examine this relationship from regime to regime beginning with Dr. Nkrumahs CPP Government. Continues through the unconstitutional years of Flt Lt J. J. Rawlings PNDC. Touches on other short-lived regimes until President Rawlings NDC and President Kufuors NPP.

INTRODUCTION
The presentation highlights the role of the media towards safeguarding democracy under each regime and the responses of the various political establishments. It examines the interface between the media and politics and how interactions between the mass media and political actors impact on democracy.

GHANAS DEMOCRACY
Ghanas democracy is a hybrid of the North American and British Westminster models combining constitutionalism, participation and representation at both the national and local levels. It operates a system in which the mass media are both actors and facilitators.

GHANAS DEMOCRACY
Ghana has a democratically elected government headed by a President and has, since 1992, had four such governments - bracing up for the 5th. It has, for the first time in the countrys history, also had a smooth changeover from one political party to another operating within the same Constitution and the same Republic.

GHANAS DEMOCRACY
Ghana has a 230-member multi-party Parliament with a very strong Opposition. It has an independent Judiciary and other independent constitutional bodies:
Electoral Commission Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice National Media Commission

The Role of the Mass Media in Democracy

Open up channels of communication to enable public access to government and its structures, and to engender public involvement and discussion of government activities. McQuail (2000) provides a list of mediation roles or functions that the mass media have been known or perceived to play in society.

ROLE OF MEDIA
The media are seen as a window on events and experience, a mirror of events in society and the world, a filter or gatekeeper, a signpost, guide or interpreter, a forum or platform for the presentation of information and ideas and as an interlocutor or informed partner in conversation (McQuail, 2000, p. 66).

ROLE OF MEDIA
Ensure good governance and government accountability through the provision of adequate and accessible information, which is a sine qua non of democracy, economic growth and consumer choice. By providing and facilitating the flow of information, the media constitute an important component of the political process in democracies.

ROLE OF MEDIA
The media educate through the provision of news and information; Provide entertainment; Bring societies, social institutions and cultures closer to each other through news coverage and the provision of information; Perform watchdog roles over Governments, their agencies and institutions as well as over society and its institutions; Usually set the agenda for debate and discussion on issues of importance.

The Media in Ghana

The history and development of the mass media in Ghana are inextricably linked to the countrys political history. Under colonialism, the newspaper was introduced and used more as a political tool to link the centre to the periphery than as a tool for the dissemination of information (Anokwa, 1997; Ansu-Kyeremeh & Karikari, 1998).

The Media in Ghana

During the struggle for independence, newspapers were used to organise and galvanise the people to fight to liberate the country from colonialism (Ansah, 1991a). Immediately after independence, they became tools for political mobilisation, organisation and education, and weapons for the total liberation of Africa, but later used as tools for suppressing dissent (Wilcox, 1975).

The Media in Ghana

The role of the mass media in Ghana has today transformed from the freedom fighter of the early newspapers to the watchdog role assigned by Ghanas 1992 Constitution (Article 162 (5)). Ghana of the 1990s, the period of transition from the Rawlings years of dictatorship to a democratic republic (Ampaw, 2004, p. 18), witnessed even greater media involvement in politics.

The Media in Ghana

The Ghanaian media have vacillated between intrepidity and cowardice along a continuum of revolutionary, confrontational, legitimacy, and supportive roles depending on the prevailing political atmosphere. Their roles determined by the unstable, complex, social and political environments in which they function.

 In normal times, and on the average, they have functioned more like what Donohue, Tichenor and Olien (1995) referred to as the guard dog. This is a kind of mid-posture between the watchdog and lapdog concepts, owing principally to the uncertainty of their operational environment (Boafo, 1985; Anokwa, 1997).

The Media in Ghana

They have tried to play the watchdog role during most civilian administrations (Boafo, 1988; Blay-Amihere & Alabi, 1996). They have also had to play the lapdog role out of genuine fear for their lives especially during military regimes (Boafo, 1985).

The Media in Ghana

The mass media have enabled large sections of Ghanas population to voice out their feelings especially through letters to editors and interactive radio programmes in local languages. These allow Ghanas citizens to contribute to discussions on issues that affect the society.

Government-Media Relations
Throughout Ghanas history, relations between the mass media and government have varied from regime to regime (Anokwa,
1997; Yankah, 1997; Asante, 1996).

Various governments have tended to excessively control the media and to use them largely as mouthpieces for propagating their political agenda (Anokwa,
1997; Asante, 1996; Ansah, 1991a).

Government-Media Relations
Relations were most sour under the regime of Dr Kwame Nkrumah and especially during the unconstitutional regimes of military dictators such as General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong and Flt-Lt Jerry John Rawlings. Conversely, they were more relaxed under the civilian administrations of Dr Busia, Dr Limann and Mr Kufuor.

Government-Media Relations
During the unconstitutional rule of the PNDC (1982-1992), the media lived under a regime characterised by a culture of silence with the promulgation of the newspaper licensing law (PNDC Law 211), which made journalistic work hazardous. Culture of silence is defined as antidemocratic and anti-freedom of expression communication (Ansu-Kyeremeh, 19992001, p.31), a situation that curtails the cultivation and nurturing of free expression (p. 33).

Government-Media Relations
The concept culture of silence - recalls Dr Nkrumahs belief that the type of free expression which established democracies have taken generations to evolve was beyond the reach of a young independent country (an emergent democracy) like Ghana (Nkrumah,1963, p 77).

Government-Media Relations
During much of Ghanas postindependence history, the mass media have been largely under government monopoly and control (Ansu-Kyeremeh & Karikari, 1998). As a result, the terms state-owned media and government media are usually used interchangeably even by the National Communications Authority (NCA).

CONCLUSION
The media are critical to the realisation of the ideals of Ghanas democracy. They monitor the extent to which peoples rights to free speech, free expression, free movement, free association, and equal opportunities in employment and education, among others, are respected in democracies (Ansah, 1991).

CONCLUSION
The requirements of probity, accountability and transparency in democratic governance underscore the importance of the mass media and feedback from the public. Theoretically, Ghanas Constitution in Chapter 12 and Article 21 makes the mass media one of the pillars of Ghanas democracy and an important vehicle through which Ghana can establish and sustain its democratic culture.

CONCLUSION
The media have been instrumental in safeguarding Ghanas democratic principles (Ayee, 2001a). They have played vital roles in both the historical and socio-political development of the country (Ansah, 1991a; Gyimah-Boadi, 1999/2001a & b; Smith & Temin, 2001).

CONCLUSION
Thus the traditional trio of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary, representing the Presidency, Parliament and the Courts (Supreme Court) are, in Ghana as elsewhere, joined by the Fourth Estate (the mass media) in importance to democratic governance.