The Member of Parliament for Akim Oda Constituency, Alexander Akwasi Acquah, has cautioned journalists to be wary of their news reportage about individuals against the background of media freedom.
Mr. Acquah, formally a media practitioner, said the fact that the media is considered the “Fourth Estate of the Realm” it does not grant the journalist an unchecked power to the extent of tarnishing the image any member of the public.
According to him, the journalist in the face of the freedom, has a responsibility which must be fulfilled in the discharge of his duties.
“I must say that the freedom of the journalist is very important but the journalist must know that every right comes with responsibility” he stressed in an interview granted Ahenkan FM in Oda.
Explaining his point, the MP said journalists have the capability to ruin the reputations of people, however, the victim of such treatment may have options available including rejoinder to address the issue but may be faced with many limitations going forward.
“Let’s say you are a politician and the journalist speaks about you disparagingly, and you want to prove your worth, you should be able to issue a rejoinder.
“But the extent to which the reputation of the person may have been damaged, how would the politician be able to exhaustively explain himself with the rejoinder?
“So, at the end of the day if we want to rely on the provisions of the rejoinder and allow the journalist to publish or broadcast whatever he so desires, then we are failing ourselves,” Mr. Akwasi Acquah said.
Meanwhile, Ghana has relapsed to a “problematic” state from a state of “satisfactory” on the situational index recorded in the latest press freedom rankings.
This was arrived at after the the index saw the country drop 30 places to the 60th position out of 180 countries that were studied.
The massive drop makes the ranking the lowest to be recorded by the country.
According to Reporters Without Borders, the association responsible for compiling the rankings, Ghana scored 67,43 which is the third heaviest drop after ranking 66th in 2005 and 67th in 2002.
The report was released to commemorate International Press Freedom Day.
