“My Opinion” By William Dodzi Ezah

For pioneers of sports journalism and broadcasting who are dead and gone, they might at these moments be turning themselves round in their graves due to the decreasing standards of sports journalism and broadcasting in the country.

And for those on retirement, there is no doubt that they are greatly worried over the situation and must be lamenting each day whilst awaiting for the moment the good Lord will call them to glory.

Over the years, concerns have been raised over the low standards of sports journalism and broadcasting in the country, but one has not been able to lay hands a single concrete situation to justify that.

However, the recent reports in the media about an alleged sale of award to the Red Bull Soccer Academy by the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) at the rate of 5, 000 GHC leaves much to be desired.

The story according to information was first broken by an Accra based radio station - Oman Fm with a follow up on the Ghanaweb.

A critical analysis of the story gives credence to the fact that, indeed Sports journalism and broadcasting has reduced to the lowest ebb.

One is not out to question the professional credibility of the reporters who broke the story, but it gives enough reason to question their worth as journalists and broadcasters.

The story lacked the basic principles of journalism - that is to afford all interesting parties the opportunity to react to allegations and to deny all parties, a fair opportunity to state their side of a story was indeed unfair, biased and unprofessional.

The attitude of the broadcaster and the journalist towards the story could be said to pure mischief and a calculated attempt to tarnish the image of SWAG.

But why should one worry over these basic principles, when the profession has been overtaken by charlatans parading as journalists/broadcasters. One needs not to worry, when basic principles like professionalism, fairness among others have been thrown to the dogs. In a generation when you no longer need formal training or education to practice journalism and broadcasting such an approach to the profession must be expected. With the proliferation of radio stations across the length and breath of the country and the emergence of “twi journalism” all that is required to practice is some amount of fluency in Twi or English coupled with a little knowledge in football “not sports”, to practice journalism and broadcasting. Though it is an undisputable and undeniable fact that, some of these people parading as journalists and broadcasters are holders of degrees as well as other professional qualifications and seem to be doing well according to the poor standards, the fact still remains that a bunch of them could be described as people who just have the love for “football” not sports hence can never be journalists. A piece of stick they say can never turn into a crocodile no matter the number of years it spends in water.

However, the fact still remains that, there are some great minds and intelligent people doing some amount of good job, but they are in the minority. But with little or no requirement to practice, one can easily jump onto the media train, attend all manner of assignments, appear on radio and television programs as expects on sports programmes.

We are in era, when people parading as journalists do not have the skill to develop accurate angles for stories or have the senses for getting stories but rely on uninvestigated and unconfirmed rumours, emotions of aggrieved and mischievous people on daily basis for their stories.

And in the absence of the above, they log onto the internet for already cooked stories to fill up their spaces, or come up with unintelligent topics for discussion on air.

Interestingly, they are hailed by sections of the public and regarded as heroes of our time, but for those who have thorough understanding of sports journalism and broadcasting; these are heroes of mediocrity and “nooko fioo journalists and broadcasters”.

However, the originators of the story and rumour must bear in mind that, SWAG as an independent body goes through a well laid out process before coming out with the list of nominees.

Nominees for awards are determined by a committee with further confirmation from their associations and required bodies before they are presented to members at general council meeting for approval, it is therefore highly impossible and unimaginable to buy an award from SWAG.

One therefore wonders the nature of investigations conducted by Oman Fm and the Ghanaweb reporter before coming out with such a one sided story aimed at causing irreparable damage to Association. Though awards are at the discretion of SWAG, the Association will definitely not exchange it for money, because the Association has an enviable image to protect.

The story on the Ghanaweb also talks about the academy providing SWAG with referees for the recent first leg of the SWAG match between Kotoko and Heart of Lions at the Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra.

Again, this was clear demonstration of amateur journalism and of course investigation, because SWAG paid for every single penny from allowances to hotel bills of the Togolese referees who were brought to Ghana through the efforts of the Association and not Red Bull (emphasis mine).

This indeed is a confirmation of the fact that standards have indeed fallen and sports journalists and broadcasters with critical and analytical minds, fine diction and all the best qualities are in short supply these days. With the recent development, there is the need for all those concerned with sports journalism and broadcasting to sit up and direct their focus on capacity building and development to help promote sports journalism and broadcasting in the country.

SWAG as a respectable and well recognized body remains committed to the promotion of sports journalism and broadcasting in the country and will not be detracted by mischievous and charlatans in the dispensation of its duty.

And for the RAG/SWAG it will be dealt with later.

Long SWAG, Long Live Ghana.

(billdodzi@yahoo.co.uk)