Accra (Greater Accra), 12 Feb '99 -

Mr Justice Kwame Afreh, an Appeal Court Judge, today called for a debate of issues and ideas in the private media, saying its "present style of personalising issues" is slackening its growth. " If we do not attack issues and ideas, we tend to demonise people, creating a situation where the singer is attacked rather than his song." Mr Justice Afreh was addressing the fourth Publishers Club lectures of the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG) in Accra. The encounter, which was attended by 30 jurists, media practitioners, publishers and parliamentarians, was under the theme, "The Contribution of the Private Press to Human Rights Promotion in Ghana". He criticised the private media for "over concentrating on politics" when discussing human rights, saying there are many other rights, including economic and social rights, which deserve equal attention. Mr Justice Afreh said the idea that the threat to the rights of politicians and journalists is considered as the only things worth discussing should be reconsidered adding that other rights have been neglected for far too long "How many times have we turned our attention to the poor, the plight of the underprivileged? How many times have we really bothered to see how the street boy or girl lives?". He said the only way journalists could help ordinary citizens to defend their rights is to let them know and appreciate their rights and duties under the Constitution. Dr Niyi Alabi, a media consultant, said a free press is fundamental to the sustenance of democracy in every community and described the private press as the enterprise, which has survived the hardest of times, because "no army can stop an idea whose time has come ". "I wonder what would have happened if there was no dominant vibrant private press during the first term of the fourth republic when the opposition deserted the electorate by not going to parliament." Dr. Alabi said no politician in authority would praise a free private press, because they are a source of worry to them, adding that "no one likes the man who brings bad news". "Corruption in political circles has been exposed by the private press. It has created the forum for the ordinary Ghanaian to discuss matters that affect his life. " He said the private press may err in its bid to tell the truth but that does not negate the role it has played and continues to play in the nurturing of the nation's democracy. Mr Eben Quarcoo, a veteran journalist, said the legal, physical and psychological attacks visited on the private press can never be justified. "The detractor of the private press would like to give the dog a bad name in order to kill it. In the attack of the private press, nothing is too shameful, indecent or barbaric."