“Although journalism is supposed to protect every citizen- big or small, African journalists have used it to protect the political class,” Veteran Ghanaian journalist, Francis Kokutse, who, during the World Press Freedom Day edition of Platforms Africa e-Discourse, opens up on how journalists are fast becoming an albatross for their profession, speaks on brown envelope, poor remuneration among others
Who is a journalist and what are those traits that stand a journalists out from other conveyors of information?
Loosely defined, a journalist is someone employed to regularly engaged in gathering, processing, and disseminating news and information to serve the public interest. Over the past two decades, this has changed to include others engaged in mass communications. While journalism occupies a much smaller space than the talk, entertainment, opinion, assertion, advertising and propaganda that dominate the media universe, it is nevertheless perceived as being more valuable than what the other put out. A journalist must be someone with integrity to be able to question the integrity of others and must be fearless to speak truth to power and protect the vulnerable in society. I must admit that, these traits cannot be found among many journalists today.
What then is press freedom?
One online resource says, Press Freedom “is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exercised freely.”
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Another definition by www.liberty.eu says, when a country has a free press, “we mean that its news outlets and other publications, even individual citizens, have the right to communicate information without influence or fear of retribution from the state or other powerful entities or individuals.”
Why is it necessary for a day to be recognised as World Press Freedom Day?
Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that, “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference, and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.”
Other scholars have said Press Freedom is necessary for democracy and said, “you can’t have much of a democracy without a free press,” because “democracy’s strength rests in the hands of the people, meaning they have to be knowledgeable and informed in order to make the right decisions when they go to vote.”
Thus, we need Press Freedom for a democracy to work. For this reason, the day set aside is to keep reminding us to keep Press Freedom important in our various countries.
Are journalists in Africa free to practise their profession?
The late Ugandan President, Idi Amin is reported to have once said, “There is freedom of speech but, l cannot guarantee freedom after speech,” it looks like most African leaders are following this. Either they don’t understand democracy or they want to pick and choose what makes a democracy. So, they have chosen election through the ballot box which they rig most of the time, but have decided to kick against freedom of the press. Having said this, there is also an aspect of media freedom that has been ignored; Self censorship in the newsrooms. Some Editors, who lobbied for their positions often fear to publish the truth that may be against authority and for the same reason, do not want to be seen to be critical. So yes, there is a clampdown on press freedom in Africa but journalists have also contributed to this.
Ghana has been downgraded by RSF based on press freedom indices, what went wrong?
The RSF’s downgrading of Ghana in its Global Press Freedom Index, can be seen from various angles. One, President Akufo-Addo who until he became head of state, was a champion of free press, unfortunately, like other African politicians, scared of being seen in a bad light in the media, has through his assigns, clearly shown that, they will not like criticisms.
The country’s media space has also been so politicized, especially, the electronic media, and the politicians have used insults and lies to destroy each other using some media personnel, now it has reached a crescendo. The current government is trying to fight what it contributed to build by attempting to clampdown on media houses that are not friendly to them. We also have security operatives who were recruited because of their political colours and some of these people have become intolerant to views that make the government look bad. It is the combination of these that have contributed to some journalists being assaulted, threatened and arrested and so, the RSF simply downgraded the country in its rankings.
Aside from the Ghana scenario, would you say the advent of social media has thrown up bloggers, influencers among others and can this set of people be refered to as journalists?
I am not sure about other countries, but in Ghana, no qualification is needed to be classified as a journalist once you are able to gain employment into a media house, or start a blog or a news portal. All these people call themselves journalists. Since bloggers and influencers and all those in the digital space have become identified as a journalists, it is creating a problem with standards. These are people who simply want to use content to generate traffic in order to get clicks on their sites to make money. In the true sense, once we agree that journalism is a profession, l don’t think these people should be seen as one.
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Sadly, they are the people who pull the crowd. We are now facing the situation the classical musicians face – they will not do any commercial music because of their training. Unfortunately, ‘noise making’ which is what commercial musicians do rakes in money, though the classical musicians frown upon it. In truth, these bloggers and influencers are not journalists but they identify themselves as such, and that is the reality of the day, so we only have to live with it.
But can’t the appropriate professional bodies and the authorities do something about this unfortunate development?
It is entrenched in our constitution
Sure, but nobody seems ready to enforce the laws to stop this fast descent into the abyss concerning the practice of journalism.
Our Journalist Association is almost dead. In fact, the current executives ended their term almost two years ago, it was only this week that they issued a statement to say elections will come on. This was after a fierce fight from some worried group. That is how bad our situation is.
Poor renumeration is one of the challenges a typical African journalist faces. How can this be addressed?
The real problem is not poor renumeration. Setting up a media organisation on a shoe string budget is what has led to poor renumeration. Media is a serious business but, some people think setting up an office with three laptops with no serious investment is all they need. Most of the people who venture into the media space do not understand the business and so, invest so little. I remember one media house wanted me to assume the position of an Editor in 2008 and mentioned $250 a month as salary. The man explained we don’t have much money, but over time, we will get political backers. For this publisher, he had made a great offer. So, it is the investors who have no money but want to set up media houses who must be blamed. In addition, we the journalists to have contributed to receiving poor salaries as we don’t place value on ourselves. This may also be why we have poorly trained people working in some media houses because they need jobs and are ready to receive anything as salaries.
Scholars have advocated news commercialisation, which means that news organisations can charge money for news coverage. Can this be an excuse for journalists to also collect money for covering an event?
Commercialisation is already happening. In truth, it negates the ethics of the profession but it is being done. There are some media houses that take money to publish advertorials as news stories and features. So we have entered the ear of “Churnalism” which is just churning out anything to make money, very different from journalism. That is why some journalists have started taking money to write stories. This is different from the Brown Envelope. So, l would says if the head of a fish is rotten, what do you expect of the tail?
Finally, journalism is a profession that is regarded to be least appreciated by people it tends to protect and project. What is the way out for the African journalist who is at a cross-road over this belief and about his daily trade?
Although journalism is supposed to protect every citizen- big or small, African journalists have used it to protect the political class. So, this class do not see journalists as relevant and continue to disrespect us because they know how to use us. We have abandoned the cause of the ordinary people and so, they have also long given up on us. So, no group sees journalists worthy of respect. For me, journalism in Africa has lost its way. Is there a way out? l am not sure. May be God will help us one day.
E-Discourse is a weekly enlightenment event on Platforms Africa forum, an e-Community of intellectuals, policy moulders and opinion leaders across Africa created by multiple award winning African journalist, Adeola Yusuf
