From: Stephen A. Quaye, Toronto-Canada.

In Christian circles when someone is maltreated or falsehood is peddled against him, he comforts himself with the belief that “judgment is mine says the lord”.
When one comes to the ordinary life circles it is very difficult for one to forgive and forget of bad treatment meted out to him by a fellow person in the community.
But when one finds himself in a very painful corner where there is no person to offer support or exonerate him from the false allegations that has been leveled against him causing serious damages to his lifestyle, here he will say” posterity will judge one day”.
This should remind us of series of occasions in few years gone by in Ghana where certain politicians as well as chiefs and dignified persons were picked by other persons who did not share their opinions and vilified them for no apparent reason.
Unfortunately, some media houses which were to verify and present the truth to the masses to judge, fell victim to this dirty tricks that some politicians adopted only to run down power holders and take over from them.
In fact those media houses which allowed their services to be used in that wrong direction turned out to be “media tyrants” of these victims or the administrators of government.
To succeed in running down particular persons in government, politicians and ordinary dignified persons a whole lot of false allegations were leveled against people that the accusers were not able to and as of today have not been able to substantiate those allegations.
Some of these media houses which found itself in that “search and destroy “ exercise are stilling struggling to get their lost respect back but it is not easy because those unsubstantiated allegations are still hanging like a dangerous missile which can explode anytime of the day.
Let us take a little time of and reflect on how the National Democratic Congress [NDC] used the media campaign against the New Patriotic Party [NPP] then in power. There was not a single day the news papers ,radio stations and television stations presented a news item without allegations of serious corruption leveled against the then President John Agyekun Kufuor,his ministers, DCEs party members and ordinary office holders.
The NDC kept on holding press conferences which they claimed having evidences of corruption activities that were taking place either at the seat of government which is Osu Castle, in the ministries and what have you.
At one point Victor Smith the then spokesman for former president Jerry John Rawlings was challenged to substantiate an allegation he leveled against former president Kufuor alleged to have signed a contract deal with a certain Arab Oil Company and was being threatened with court suit for not able to satisfy the contract agreement.
Year 2008, apart from the fact that it was an election was a year full of instigations, peddling of lies and vilification of NPP members by NDC members.
But in all, the gentle giant together with his able men and women kept mute and filed away peacefully handing over power to the NDC government after haven been declared winners of the 2008 elections by their candidate Professor Atta Mills.
Two years down the lane after those accused as corrupt people NPP have handed over power to its accusers NDC, it has been complaining of media tyranny which is at it hills and not giving it room to solve the problems of the country.
Ha, ha, ha, have they forgotten the Ghanaian adage which says, ”wotomi woniama wose wo kehyere enye” to wit,” if you can not solve your problems then you play blame games pointing accusing fingers at innocent people”.
It was interesting listening to one Mr. Felix Owusu Kwaakye, the special assistant to the minister of Trade who also talks on issues on behalf of the NDC scrambling to find a solution to his party’s failure when he appeared on Joy F.M. News file on July 24.
As he tried to play the game, he complained of his government NDC facing media tyranny which was not so in the previous government.
Here I asked myself does this guy know what he was talking about. Your answer is as good as my. The simple explanation is this. Suppose he was able to reflect a little about how he and his colleagues used the media against the NPP in power he would have realized that it is the tyranny it created, left it and has come to face it as it is.
Anyone who has a little understanding as to how the media works will clearly say that it is doing it work as expected from it, keeping the government on it toes, serving as the voice for the voiceless and exposing wrongs in the community for men in authority to solve.
For those in politics and the true victims of vilification like the gentle giant, he might be saying in his heart, “oh yes posterity has started to judge whether I and my administrators were corrupt looking at what the current government officials are facing at the hands of the media”.
The media searches for true and accurate information to feed the masses. If they were made to go in a certain direction which favoured a particular group and now they are using the same strategy it was made to develop to hold government accountable, it could be said that there is no media tyranny anywhere.
We have not gone into another election yet and the NDC has started to play blame game. They should prepare for more checks and double checks that they call “media tyranny in few months into election.
End.