A legal practitioner and journalism lecturer at the African University College of Communications (AUCC) here in Accra, Ogochukwu Nweke, is strongly advocating an amendment of Article 12 of the 1992 Constitution which guarantees media freedoms.
He says the Article guarantees journalists unlimited freedoms without adequate provisions to hold them accountable; a situation he says is dangerous for the country's democracy and a peaceful conduct of the December polls.
He was speaking at a workshop dubbed; Connecting Media and Civil Society for credible elections 2012, organised by the International Institute for ICT Journalism.
Mr Nweke said the dangerous, reckless, irresponsible journalism going on in a massive scale was generally because the constitution virtually gives journalists a carte blanche to do what pleases them.
He said it was understandable that the constitution guaranteed journalists wide-ranging powers and freedoms given the country's political history and the consistent attempts to emasculate the media.
The circumstances that necessitated the creation of Article 12, according to him, no longer exist and the provision must be amended.
He said the National Media Commission must be given powers to revoke the licenses of media organizations as well as sanction journalists, who misbehave, insisting that was the only way to sanitise the media terrain.
Mr Nweke believes asking people who have been defamed to go to court is not enough.
A Project Director at Penplusbytes, organizers of the workshop, said the workshop formed part of the organisation's African Elections Project funded by STAR-Ghana.
The AEP launched in 2008, has the overall objective of "enhancing the ability of journalists, citizen journalists and the news media to provide more timely and relevant elections information and knowledge while undertaking monitoring of specific and important aspects of governance."
Recognizing the potency of social media in fostering social and political inclusion, the AEP, he said, uses "social media tools and platforms to develop the capacity and to monitor the governance process prior to, during and after the elections process. This monitoring involves citizens in the use of social media tools and platforms to inform the electorate on the implementation and impact of campaign promises, manifestos through the different tiers of government at both the local and state level."
No comments:
Post a Comment