A recent report by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) describing the state broadcaster as offering an unlevel playing field to opposition parties has incurred the displeasure of the Political Broadcast Committee Chairman of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
According to Mr. Ebenezer Ampaabeng, himself a veteran broadcaster, his organisation has been fair to all the parties guided by Article 55 of the constitution especially contents on pages 11 and 12 which has been used to guide the election coverage.
“Groups like this (GII) sit in their rooms and write their reports,†Mr. Ampaabeng intimated, stressing civil society groups were given invites for input as to how the elections could fairly be reported by the state broadcaster but the GII failed to show up despite other notable and credible groups availing themselves and offering inputs.
Mr. Ampaabeng also mentioned the group did not contact the GBC for its side of the story as basic journalism tenet required before publication noting the GII report was sure to cast a shadow over all the goods works they’ve done.
“There is no integrity in their report,†he posited adding groups like the Ghana Integrity Initiative were only interested in what their pay masters desire them to do for funds submitting “what they have done is dirty.â€
Mr. Ampaabeng of the Political Broadcast Committee further challenged the GII to provide evidence that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been favoured with airtime to the detriment of the other parties adding fair slots have been given to all the eligible parties.
He however stated paid for party adverts cannot be restricted since the frequency is determined by the client.
He also stated “documentaries and live rally coverages are also paid for. Those which are not paid for, the station covers it and airs it briefly as news,†he noted.
Meanwhile spokesperson for the GII’s Coalition on Abuse of Incumbency and Electoral Corruption, Edem Senanu told Citi News, its monitoring between June and August this year showed the NDC had enjoyed massive coverage to the disadvantage of other political parties.
“We found that generally, the information provided by these state media platforms was biased. This is because some political parties were given more time and space by the state media platform in comparison with others and therefore others were at a disadvantage. For the period, June to August, we found that NDC had 49 per cent, NPP had 19 per cent,†he said.
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GII is the Ghana Chapter of Transparency International (TI).