#PressFreedomOnGMABC: Ghanaian media acts as dictators – Lansah Musah

By: Joel Sanco

The Ghanaian media has been criticized for acting as dictators who refuse to be questioned about their content and other news materials they churn out on some occasions.

Deputy News Editor of GhOne TV, Lansah Alhassan Musah says this behavior has made it difficult to say Ghana has a free and independent media as it fails to operate under accountability “in as much as we want freedom.”

Speaking during a commemorative twitter space event organized by Happy98.9FM he told host Isaac Addae, “There is the new trend where the media is beginning to act like a dictator. We simply don’t want to be questioned about our content.”

Mr. Musah urges the media to start being accountable for all its news stories. “Whenever we do stories, we need to tie all the loose ends, cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s. this is to ensure no one questions us and also prevents our people from coming out to say they are being attacked.”

The news editor also believes media ownership and the excesses experienced from media personnel affects press freedom. With the proliferation of news commercialization and political ownership of media houses, journalists are more inclined to “doing the bidding of the people who employed them to the detriment of the core tenets of the job.”

In 2024, World Press Freedom Day is dedicated to the importance of journalism and freedom of expression in the context of the current global environmental crisis.
Awareness of all aspects of the global environmental crisis and its consequences is essential to build democratic societies. Journalistic work is indispensable for this purpose.

However, with Ghana going into elections in 2024, Happy98.9FM decided to focus on the theme; ”The vital role of the Ghanaian press in promoting a free, fair, and peaceful electoral process.”