News:
October 6, 2011
The Director of Communications for the opposition New Patriotic Party’s [NPP] 2012 campaign, Nana Akomea has conceded that tensions between his party, the New Patriotic Party [NPP] and the ruling National Democratic Congress [NDC] have led to mushrooming of politically affiliated media houses in the country.
The development which he referred to as “propaganda journalism”, according to him, is threatening the atmosphere of freedom of speech prevailing in the country as well as undermining the repeal of the criminal libel law.
Speaking on Multi TV’s political talk show, Minority Caucus, Nana Akomea said “this new phenomenon is actually what I would call propaganda journalism and it seems to be the dominant kind of media work these days where newspapers and radio stations have been formed not to live up to the profession of exposing corruption and ensuring accountability but just to follow party propaganda” – a move he described as unfortunate.
According to him, the objective of most of these media platforms, particularly those in the print media, is to come up with controversial headlines for the purposes of review on radio and not to compete for readership arguing that “propaganda journalism” has so far taken centre stage in the media and is overshadowing media houses which are focused on practicing professional journalism.
Nana Akomea was however optimistic that the practice of propaganda journalism will soon fade away once the NDC and NPP have been able to settle their differences.
The Okaikwei South MP also criticised the NDC government of weakening freedom of speech in the country through its misapplication of the law on fear and panic.
Commenting on the communication strategy to be used by the NPP for the upcoming elections, Nana Akomea said unlike the NDC which has taken delight in a smear campaign against the NPP’s flag-bearer, “for us [NPP], our focus is to present the message, our alternatives to the man on the street. We want to talk directly to the things that will affect his needs, his welfare… We aim to provide nothing short of transformational leadership, a courageous leadership and a decisive leadership that will cut through the morals and get to the bottom of the problem and solve it.”
Multi TV