William Sarpong Writes….On Media Discrimination At EC

The Electoral Commission has adopted the tactics of preventing some media houses from getting access to general information meant for public consumption.

What EC officials do not know is that, each and every media house has its own readers, listeners and viewers no matter how small the organisations might be.

There are some politicians who always want to first read news emanating from media houses allegedly believed to be sympathisers of his or her rival political opponent.

Whoever advised the EC to only select media houses that can report in their favour is rather doing them disservice by making their neutrality claims questionable.

Attending press conferences at the Electoral Commission office is supposed to be opened to every credible media house that goes there to access information but, that is not what is happening as compared to the past.

There are always selected printed list of media houses at the security check point and if your Media House is not among, there is no way you would be allowed to go to the conference room to access information.

As to whether the media selection decision of the EC’s favorite was something done by the Bosses themselves or is done by the Communication Department themselves just to please their Bosses, only God can tell.

The issue of giving access to the so called “Our People”, is already witnessed across the Government institutions including Ministries, Departments and Agencies. These Government institutions have formed Press Corps and if you don’t belong to their Corps, forget about any information.

The most shocking of the ongoing media discrimination has to do with the involvement of Ministry of Information.

A Ministry that used to give access to every media house that finds its way there, is now operating under press Corps where, every member has been given a press ID Card.

What those who introduced the media discrimination agenda failed to understand is that, it opened avenues for continuous attack on government.
Because the line has been drawn, those denied media houses do not hesitate to publish anything negative they would come across against government institutions.

Meanwhile, because of these trend, the media is now becoming more divided and I don’t predict, if care is not taken, any party that comes to power would make sure the trend continues which, would not go well for the development of the nation.

The earlier PRINPAG, GJA, Media Commission and other media Organisations addressed the pending issue, the better it would be for national development.

The media is supposed to support any government in power by promoting all positive policies of the government and kick against anything that would not benefit the citizens.

Source: Amaghanaonline