They
came back from their hunting expedition, yet again, with apparently horrifying
tales of near torture.
"They
seized my phone," said one.
"Some
threw blows at me which I had to retreat," narrated another.
It
was a narrative told by journalists who had gone to the various branches of the
embattled gold dealership company, Menzgold, to report on affairs and
proceedings after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Ghana
instructed the company to immediately shut down for violation of the law.
This
daily ritual of journalists nosing around for news was not taken lightly by
some customers and staff of Menzgold, we were told, hence, 'pouncing' on the
journalists who went to the headquarters and other branches of the company.
This
wave of attacks on journalists, in any jurisdiction, across the globe, must be
condemned and abhorred. Journalism is not a crime! The public and persons who come
under the radar of journalists must understand that getting to get information,
on a subject, does not warrant beatings and assaults.
As
I write this piece, Al Jazeera's Mahmoud Hussein has been detained by Egypt’s government
for over 636 days. His crime? Mahmoud is accused of "disseminating false
news and receiving monetary funds from foreign authorities in order to defame
the state's reputation."
On
Monday, September 3, 2018, a Myanmar court gave a seven-year sentence to
Reuter’s reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo for breaching a law on state secrets.
This was when they reported of the massacre of Rohingya men. These kind of
attacks on the media and journalists are certainly not the best of news anyone
would want to listen to or read. Each one of us must resist this calculated
attempt at muzzling of journalists.
Whereas
fighting for journalists and the media is commendable, I personally feel like
strings of hair being pulled from my nostrils whenever I have to argue in
favour of the Ghanaian journalist and his/her media. At times, we deserve the
public’s uproar at us.
Until
I joined the media as a journalist, I thought hypocrites were only found in the
church. But hey, right in the Ghanaian media is an avalanche of pretentious
acts on the side of both employers and employees.
If
Menzgold is haunted by the Securities and Exchange Commission for flouting our
laws, I sincerely think majority of our media houses do not have the moral
right to send its journalists to report on such. These are media houses that
some, I can say without the fear of contradiction, pay reporters below minimum
wage. These are media houses that even do not pay some of its workers
[capitalizing on such journalists’ quest for job to abuse them]. Again, these are
media houses that suppress free flow of information when it affects them.
If
my memory serves me right, last year, news went rife that a section of the
Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) was on fire. I later learnt it was its
stores specifically. When I got to the entrance of GBC to report on the
development, together with other journalists from other media houses, there was
a directive indicating we will not be allowed to report on the fire.
This
made some journalists suspect arson. GBC, for example, reflects in most media
houses I know in this country called Ghana. Writing on his Facebook wall, on
September 14, 2018, renowned journalist with Ghana Television [GTV] Abdul Hayi
Moomen said: “The problems at TV Africa, are not limited to TV Africa alone.
The only difference is that they have sold their sickness to the world. Our
elders say, “he who sells his sickness, will find a cure.” There are a lot sicker
media houses. But they have chosen to live on several doses of tramadol.”
TV
Africa had laid off some of its workers and a leaked letter of termination of
employees’ contract went viral on social media. We have had some media houses
laying of some of its staff and failed to capture that in their treatment of
the issue of the recent massive job losses in the country. These media houses,
I monitored, mentioned every single company in the country that had laid off
workers, backing their stories with infographics. If you are a journalist
working on such a story and you include your own media house, which had equally
laid off workers, you are assured of the reaction that follows.
Where
would you place this in the context of press freedom? What about in the context
of right to information?
So,
if Menzgold’s staff and customers ‘attacked’ journalists, it is not news. The
media that ought to be professional in the free flow of information becomes
mute over such when the ball is in their court.
The
sad part of the narrative is that journalists that go all length to get justice
for others being abused are themselves silent when they are equally being
abused.
Abdul
Hayi Moomen in his media lamentation adds that: “The instinct for survival
chases many unpaid, underpaid, underemployed and unemployed journalists to create
a new salary scheme called ‘soli’ [monies event organisers pay journalists for
covering their programmes].”
One
day, my Facebook Messenger buzzed. It was a message from one of my lecturers at
the Ghana Institute of Journalism.
"Why
does it appear you are against press freedom?" asked my lecturer.
I
took time to explain to him my position on an issue that related with
journalists and press freedom. He was satisfied with my explanations. The truth
hurts but it is about time we told ourselves the hard truth. Most media houses
are gleefully abusing their journalists directly or indirectly while these same
journalists pose to the outside world that everything is so fine with them.
Let’s
stop the hypocrisy of treading the line of saints yet in our cupboards are
skeletons of pungent odor. As Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba would say, “I
am not a Jewish prophet and not claim to be one but I can say that this
attitude of ours will lead us nowhere.”
Mark
Anim Yirenkyi, a Seventh-day Adventist gospel musician, in one of his songs, Ԑyɛ Adom Bi, admonishes that: “It is
better for a man to die than to live without conscience.”
Let
our employers live with the conscience that they cannot continue to make money
at the expense of people who break their backs to make their businesses succeed.
And let our journalists be bold to speak truth to power for merely condemning
an outside attack on us to endure an excruciating one within our workplaces
beats imagination.
The
writer, Solomon Mensah, is a broadcast journalist with Media General (TV3/3FM). Views expressed
here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his
organisation.
Twitter:
@aniwaba