Protect journalists from threats – Survey
Story: Olive Gibbon
A SURVEY examining the safety of media personnel in Ghana has concluded that half of participating media personnel experienced threats via telephone calls and messages.
It has found that the majority of media personnel feel unsafe covering election campaigns, state violence, political corruption, and traditional authorities. It suggests that confidence in key institutions to protect media personnel is low.
The national survey, conducted by Professor Justice Tankebe and Dr Emmanuel Sowatey from the University of Cambridge UK, included input from media personnel across the country.
It outlined respondents’ pleas for the Ghana Journalists Association to provide expert safety training workshops, safety equipment, and bolstered legal advocacy and support to journalists.
Between 2021 and 2023, the survey found increases in the proportion of media personnel who experienced public attacks, phone threats and criminal damage, examples of criminal victimisation due to their work.
However, proportions of personnel who experienced home attacks, domestic burglary, theft and robbery, bribery, SMS threats and near job loss decreased.
One participant urged that the Ghana Journalists Association, which aims to defend press freedom and free expression, “provide safety kits like bulletproof vests to protect and ensure the safety of journalists in the line of duty…it should also organise more safety workshops, seminars, and conferences with experts.”
The survey revealed a rise, between 2021 and 2023, in the percentage of participants who felt “not safe at all” across various story coverage areas. This increase was observed across all sections – whether reporting on political corruption, police violence, national security, abuses by military officers, the presidency, traditional leaders or misconduct by fellow media personnel.
Concerns were voiced over increasing political partisanship in the media. Some participants demanded that the Ghana Journalists Association distance itself from politics, “ready to face authorities without fear or favour”.
Another respondent said “It is getting risky working with colleagues who are affiliated with political parties. These colleagues always sabotage you to the various parties in return for favour.”
In 2021, 38.6% of respondents disagreed with the statement that they had confidence in the police to investigate crimes against media personnel, with that figure slightly improving to 35.8% in 2023. However, the percentage that “strongly disagreed” rose from 20.2% to 26.3%.
Bolstered legal support was an additional demand highlighted by the survey. One respondent called for the GJA to take up legal suits on behalf of journalists. “They should make it unattractive to attack a journalist”, they implored.
The survey’s organisers finalised some immediate policy recommendations. While they agree with the participants that the GJA should consider safety training and legal assistance, they also propose that the Ghana Police Service considers a media safety unit focussed solely on crimes against media personnel, as a confidence-building measure.
They advise the judiciary and Attorney-General’s department to commit to tackling offences against the media.
The survey also focussed on the role of media houses themselves, with a respondent asking managers to provide their workers with staff ID cards and security.
The survey’s findings come at a time of heightened discourse on media safety, in light of the 2024 elections.
During the 2024 election, the Ghana Police Service announced the introduction of liaison officers for all media houses to serve as direct links between the Police and media establishments. This was met with skepticism from the Ghana Association of Journalists, questioning the real intentions of the decision.
In November, the Electoral Commission limited the number of media houses able to access collation centres. Following criticism from The Media Foundation for West Africa, this decision was reversed. Evidently, media safety is a pertinent topic of a contested and complex nature in Ghana.
But post-election media safety is allegedly somewhat neglected, in terms of Ghana Journalists Association’s support, with a participant in the survey claiming “journalists in the region feel the existence of GJA only during an election period”.
They asked for the decentralisation of the Accra-based Association, and the implementation of “strong Chapters of the GJA in every region to monitor the safety of journalists”.
The survey comes in the wake of numerous incidents involving attacks on media personnel. 2023 witnessed Sadiq Gariba’s physical assault live at Radio Dagbon studios, allegedly due to his criticising them.
The same year saw the interruption of United Showbiz TV by 20 NPP supporters seeking to confront the absent Kwame Asare-Obeng, discontented at the show’s criticism of its members. Groups in both these incidents were fined. 2024 saw the attack of three journalists reporting on the destruction of the environment from mining activities, by armed private guards of a mining company in the Ashanti region.
