In our world today, the media play important roles in the lives of people and in national development.
Basically, the media, as an entity, is to educate, inform and entertain the public, hence media publications as in the case of print journalism and programming as in the case of broadcast should meet these objectives.
The term Fourth Estate of the Realm is used to describe the media simply because of its power or explicit capacity of advocacy and implicit ability to frame political issues.
In other words, the media put out information or programming that has the potential to influence others to behave in certain ways.
This means, for instance, that if the media provides wholesome publications or programming to readers and listeners, it can invoke positive behaviour in them the same as unhealthy or unhelpful information churned out can incite bad conduct in the public.
The bottom line therefore is that the media must be circumspect in what information or programming they present for consumption by the public.
Being circumspect in this regard is to, first and foremost, check that the information being put out in print or broadcast form is accurate, true, not inciting, not biased and not sensitive to readers, listeners or the general public.
This shows that professionalism is at work so that even if there occurs some slips, they won’t be fatal as in not leading to disaster and killings.
The Ghanaian Times wishes to remind readers of how lack of professionalism caused workers of Hutu radicals’ controlled media channel or outlet, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) to announce the shooting down of a plane in which incident both the Rwandan and Burundian presidents then were killed on April 6, 1994 and urged Hutus to “go to work” and attack the Tutsi population.
The result was a genocide in which an estimated 800,000 Tutsis were massacred.
This is why the Ghanaian Times agrees with the Minister of Information, Fatimatu Abubakar, that Ghanaian journalists should maintain professionalism, and prioritise fact-checking in their reporting, especially in the lead-up to the upcoming elections.
It is sad that there are some radio and television stations and newspapers in the country which are biased to the extent of throwing away all professionalism, including decency, and as a result churning out graft.
Workers here throw out misinformation against their own and their masters’ political opponents in the bid to score political marks for their preferred political personalities or parties.
They run with any information they get hold of once doing so serves their diabolic purpose.
In that case, they ignore the veracity of the facts, forgetting that listeners or readers who trust them can also run with the misinformation or disisinformation.
The result is that if the misinformation or disinformation is to incite violence against or hatred for some people or something, they would succeed in that enterprise.
They do not care that their attempts would undermine the peace in the country and injure the hard-won reputation of people.
It must always don on journalists that their role in society is to ensure that the people are well-informed about issues that would help their own progress and that of the nation.
They should also know that some people learn from them and so any wrong information put out there can cause these people to give wrong judgements in certain situations.
Thus, journalists should always be alive to the crucial role they play in preserving the peace, stability, and security of the country by avoiding misinformation and disinformation, especially before, during and after the elections, while bearing in mind their role to educate the public.