The latest report from the Media Foundation for West Africa’s monitoring of ethical violations in the Ghanaian media shows that incidents of ethical violations have reduced by 75 per cent after six months of monitoring.
In May 2014 when the monitoring started, 141 ethical violations were recorded. However, in October 2014, only 36 ethical violations were recorded.
The report also shows that news websites proportionally recorded the highest number of ethical violations whereas newspapers recorded the lowest. Ghanaweb.com topped all the 40 media outlets monitored by recording close to 30 percent (185 of 636) of all the ethical violations recorded over the six months monitoring period.
Remarkably, nine of the 40 media outlets monitored over the six-month period did not register any ethical violation. Two (2) of these media outlets are newspapers (New Crusading Guide and Public Agenda) and the remaining seven (7) are radio stations – ATL FM, Radio Gurune, Radio Peace, Radio Progress, Radio Savanna; Rite FM, and Suncity FM.
The MFWA’s monitoring and reporting of ethical violations in the Ghanaian media forms part of the STAR-Ghana-funded project “Promoting Professional Standards and Enhancing the Watchdog Role of the Ghanaian Media.” The project is aimed at contributing to improve the professional standards of the media in Ghana and supporting them to play a more effective role in fostering transparent and accountable governance through critical and investigative stories.
As part of the project, 40 media outlets (made up of 25 radio stations, 10 newspapers and five news websites) selected across the country were monitored on a daily basis to track and report on ethical violations.
The six-month monitoring exercise came to an end on October 31, 2014.
For further information, kindly contact Dora Mawutor (Programme Officer: Research & Communication) on 0246-740358.