The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is much worried about what its leadership describes as anti-NDC tendencies within the Ghanaian media that are projecting perceived internal factionalism in the party.
According to the party?s General Secretary, Dr. Josiah Aryeh, the media subverts the truth and communicates distorted and incorrect information about the NDC to the voters, thereby attempting to minimize the Party?s electoral chances. Dr. Josiah Aryeh was speaking in an interview with The Heritage on Tuesday at the NDC Headquarters. He explained that the tendency to distort fact is in itself an act of subversion of democracy and the abuse of freedom of speech, aimed at inducing people to reach wrong decisions about political parties.
He bemoaned the fact that the press in Ghana is extremely partisan and usually spins and exaggerates issues in order to cast perceived enemy political parties in bad light. ?It is an approach that flies in the face of acceptable journalistic ethics,? he lamented.
He contended that in most media reportage on the NDC, responsible key members of the party, including himself are never interviewed nor their views sought but rather unnamed sources are relied upon. He said, while this unethical practice should ordinarily damage the credibility of a story, it nevertheless ensures a huge turnover for the newspapers and in some quarters reinforces negative notions about the NDC.
Touching further on the consequences of such reports, Dr. Josiah Aryeh observed that it can demotivate key political functionaries who are maligned, insulted or whose views are misrepresented. He said it could also discourage party followers who would be left with an impression of chaos and disorder at the party headquarters. When it was suggested to the General Secretary that some fellow party members give those pieces of information he perceived as defamatory to the media,
Dr. Josiah Aryeh protested, ?I have reason to believe some politicians have developed a deplorable habit of feeding the media with half truths and lies.? He however stated that not all the stories emanate from within, saying thee are external political forces who are determined to see the NDC obliterated.
