J. H. Mensah Accuses Media Of Diet Of Insults And Violence

By Stephen K. Effah
Tuesday, 08 April 2008

THE Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Joseph Henry Mensah, has chastised the country’s media for what he termed “loud shouting”, and the increasing obscenity that has characterised the media landscape.

“These days, the media scene is dominated by a loud shouting media instead of a loud thinking media needed to propel the country’s progress,” he said in a statement on Sunday at the launch of the maiden edition of Oracle Magazine in Accra.

“It is a fallacy to imagine that in a democracy, everybody can express opinion, and that all opinion is valid,” he stated.

“Some strong elements in the media landscape think the louder they are, the better their opinion,” he said, adding that such opinions or statements, “if not well thought out and informed, tend to be very little and valueless.”

Mr Mensah, who was the chairman for the occasion, said that it is worrying to note that people who phone into radio stations and abuse others in the name of democracy are as perceived “guys”.

He said it was saddening that the front-pages of most newspapers have shifted focus from development-oriented stories to crime and violent stories, adding, “we have front-pages full of pictures of dead bodies. The diet on which we are being fed is violence.”

He said it is also regrettable that currently, “criminals command more space than philosophers” in the media landscape, a situation that is detrimental to the development of the country.

He also expressed concern about lowering standards, especially bad grammar, in a section of the media and cited the grammatical mistakes in the invitation letter sent to him as an example, saying “in two sentences, the typist had made two mistakes and the editor too rushed into signing it.”

He said it is important that editors insist on standards and stop the enye hwee syndrome.
Mr Mensah said until Ghanaians change their attitude and old ways of doing things, it would be difficult for the country to develop. “We spend many years doing the same thing and in some cases, doing worse,” he said.

For example, he said, before he went into exile in the eighties, people ended the introduction of chairpersons at functions as “Mr Chairman, your audience, audience your chairman”, and many years on, people are using the same formula.

Further, he said, “after 100 years of colonialisation and 51 years of independence, we are still farming with cutlasses. Those making money in the world are not using cutlasses and hoes. Ghanaians must learn to help themselves rather than be dependent on other people’s inventions”.

Mr Mensah urged the media to be agents of change to ensure that the country, which is endowed with huge resources develops, “since God didn’t make us to be poor but prosperous”.

The Managing Editor of the Oracle Magazine, Frank Adjei-Ntekor, said the objective of the magazine is to inform the public about Ghana’s great achievers, to serve as role models to the youth.

“There are a lot of Ghanaians doing good things which people must know about,” he said.
The monthly magazine is published by Micro Creation Limited and is aimed at protecting the success stories of the country’s great achievers and nurturing the future leaders.