On Thursday, last week, a public forum on ‘Media and Herbal Medicine Advertising’ was organised in Accra following an exposé by Fourth Estate, an investigative project of the Media Founda­tion for West Africa (MFWA), a non-governmental organisation.

In that exposé, now on social media, issues raised have to do with the gate-keeping role of media houses regarding the ad­vertising of herbal medicine.

In the investigative undertak­ing, the Fourth Estate created a non-existent facility called Krodwewa Herbal Centre, which was claimed to prepare a ‘herbal medicine called Macofa Herbal Mixture to cure all menstrual problems, infertility, and impo­tence, as well as increase the libido of both men and women.

Then supposed officials of Krodwewa Herbal Centre decided to advertise their fake product, obviously for patronage.

It is sad to hear that out of eight leading media houses in four regions across the country approached to promote the fake and non-existent herbal product, only two took due steps to ensure its authenticity.

We congratulate the New Times Corporation (NTC), the publisher of Ghanaian Times and The Spectator; and Accra-based Peace FM on not running such an advert because Krodwe­wa Herbal Centre could not respond to their demand for evidence of FDA approval of the product.

The NTC and Peace FM placed the health of the public ahead of money.

The acceptance of money by the other media houses first and ignoring all the regulations for advertising herbal preparations was a subversion of the safety of the health of the public.

In addition, that single act dents their gate-keeping role and gives the impression that when it comes to money, they let all other considerations wait.

Apart from the collection of the money, it was sadder hearing presenters and anchors pro­moting Macofa, a non-existent herbal product, with all the force they could gather.

The exaggeration and embel­lishment give the impression that they have used the prepara­tion themselves or have testimo­nies from users somewhere.

This act is pronounced among those working in media houses that broadcast in local languages as they try to convince the public to patronise a product.

The Macofa story is a very bad scenario and a serious blot on the integrity and profession­alism of those who led the pro­motion of the fake concoction.

They gave themselves out as careless and gullible individuals and probably greedy people who can easily be influenced to do things they see as harmless but very devastating.

Granting Fourth Estate had put the product on sale, the buyers would have bought just a mixture of Malt, Coca-Cola, and Fanta soft drinks and drank it as medicine but to their hurt.

Today, some Ghanaians are suffering from all manner of conditions and so can be victims of fake medicines.

This is where the gate-keeping role of the media should come in and even go to the extent of exposing not only fake herbal preparations and other medicines but also food products that are likely to compro­mise the health of the public.

While we say this, we want to also call the attention of the FDA to the promotion of all manner of herbal preparations across the country by the use of public address systems.

We need to check the authen­ticity and efficacy of all these preparations before it is too late.