Anytime the news breaks about the police just like the story of the supposedly drunk police officer wielding an AK47 on board a troski as it happened last week, let’s analyse the story critically whether it meets the test of credibility, objectivity, fairness and above all, is the reportage balanced? If not, we should treat such stories and it’s [ads1]accompanying sensations and sensitivities with the contempt it deserves and very unworthy of our attention and precious time. We need to scrutinize a lot of media reports about before taking action as a police service.
If the news breaks about the police and it lacks combined elements of credibility, objectivity, fairness and the reportage isn’t balanced as I have said earlier, let’s not take them seriously. It might be some faceless individuals who have the power of microphone sitting behind radio consoles and TV screens who are abusing the airwaves to satisfy their own parochial interest riding on the back of the police service. There are a lot of unrefined media practioners parading our streets seeking undue and unworthy attention all in the name of journalism so there is no need to take them serious particularly when they seem to pursue an agenda just to discredit the police service to be cheaply famous.
The media, we all admit has a role to play to help shape, grow and develop our police service particularly in an era where Ghana Police Service itself is consciously pursuing transformation agenda to become a world class security organization by 2024. This whole transformation agenda cannot be materialized without partnering the media so the role of the media in these pursuits can never be downplayed and under estimated if we really want to make the police service a world class one as we are proclaiming and professing. The media is undoubtedly a key stakeholder in the pursuits of transforming the police service but it doesn’t also mean that the police service should kowtow to the whims and caprices of the media when it is driving on an agenda to discredit it.
It is the duty of the media to rightly position itself to pursue agenda which is in the collective interest of Ghanaians but not to be tilted against the police service and create public sensitivities against it as it happened in the case of this supposedly drunk police officer who boarded a troski with his riffle heading towards Madina from Ridge. That was very needless. The media could have done better than being petty as they did in this very particular story.
Too petty I must say, and I was overwhelmingly flabbergasted about the ignorance of the media concluding on a mere video footage circulating on social media that the police officer was drunk to stupor when there is a test of law to prove whether the police officer was drunk or not? The gross ignorance exhibited by the media in this very particular reportage is a grave one and unpardonable. It’s a pure case of yellow journalism that lacks credence and in depth analysis to make the story credible. The media sensations and sensitivities that accompanied this story were all complete waste of our eardrums and unreasonable noise on our media space as usual.
Personally, I believe that the only tool that can be used to develop our police service on accelerated pedestals is a balanced reportage about the police service bringing to bare its challenges and constraints and to also highlights on its wrongs which are inimical to natural justice as far as law enforcements are concerned. The police ought to be checked by the media so that in the course of delivering on their constitutional mandate of maintaining law and order, they do not become the law unto themselves but subjects to the dictates of the constitution which is the supreme law of Ghana.
It is the duty of the media to set developmental agenda highlighting on the challenges and constraints of the police service and to probe why it is not being efficient and effective as expected but unfortunately that is not the interest of the media but rather, they are much interested in negative stories that are of no substance about the police, therefore, succeeding in pitching the police against the general public.
For the media to become developing partners of the police service, it is time for the media to set developmental agenda about the police based on the media principles of objectivity, fairness, balanced reportage emanating from credible stories which can catch the attention of the government and major stakeholders in this country who contribute to policy making. The media must not only report or break negative news about the police but the story whether negative or positive must be credible.
The story must be fair devoid of media schemes to discredit the police. The media ought to be very objective and very balanced to satisfy the tests of principles of media independent, accountability and impartiality taking into consideration audience sensitivity. It is time to bring to bare facts and figures about the challenges and constraints facing the police with the right resource persons digesting them to meaningful conclusions on media platforms but not to pitch the police against the general public as our media has specialized in.
The sensations and sensitivities shouldn’t have been about a supposedly drunk police officer wielding an AK47 in a troski but to make the story more credible, fair and balanced, the media ought to have investigated to know that whether drunk or not, must the police officer board a troski with an AK47? A imple investigation could have brought to bare that per the provisions of the C.I 76 which is a policy document regulating the conduct of police officers as well as their conditions of service, a police officer going for a duty beyond one kilometre ought to have been transported in a police vehicle to and from their duty points. It is, therefore, no news to have seen one among thousands of police officers who are using their own means to transport themselves to their duty points and back, supposedly drunk.
The media could have investigated this story properly so that the right questions could have been asked as to why the law says that a police officer performing a duty beyond one kilometre ought to be transported by police vehicle but there are thousands of police officers boarding troskis with their riffles to far distances to perform duties whereas empty police vehicles are blowing sirens to evade traffic to only God knows where they are going.
The media could have used this story to draw the attention of the government and police administration to the plight of many police officers who are going through hell by using their meager salaries to transport themselves from Jerusalem to Jericho to perform police duties. The media once again missed a golden opportunity to contribute its quota to transform the police service to a world-class one by misfiring on the story of this supposedly drunk police officer. It was a rare opportunity for the media to up their game but sadly and once again, the media failed to be useful in this regard.
The media should not break news about police and only enjoy the sensitivities and sensations and go to bed but rather, hold continuous discussions about the challenges and constraints of the police service in the media space coupled with the negativities that can help in making an informed decisions and right policies that will enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the police service. That is what is referred to as THE MEDIA DEVELOPMENT AGENDA aiming to transform the police service to one that Ghanaians can repose their confidence and trust in it but not to discredit the police at the least opportunity.
The media for whatever reason has always been very BIAS against the police in almost all of their reportage. No matter how positive the story about the police may be, the media would still want to end their reportage with some kind of negative propaganda just to discredit the police and that is very unfortunate but it tells about how parochial driven our media is. There has been reported cases of violent attacks on police officers and police stations across the length and breadth of this country in recent times resulting in severe injuries of many police officers but sadly enough, these stories failed to catch the attention of the media for them to make credible stories out of these attacks on police stations and police officers to inform decision and policy making.
Many police officers have died in line of duties because the police service is poorly resourced and cannot protect its men but that has never been on the agenda of the media. Somewhere last week in the Brong Ahafo Region, to be precise Sunyani at the Newmont mining site, a police officer who was bracing the storm to maintain law and order and to protect lives and properties lost one eye. According to the medical report, his eye is completely damaged and if care is not taken, he might lose the other eye too. That never caught the attention of the media but sadly, the story of this supposedly drunk police officer was rather making waves in our airspace just to create sensations aiming to discredit the police for whatever reasons. How sad and the kind of yellow journalism which is practiced in this country?
I hoped and prayed that the media will take up this sad story and create all the sensations and sensitivity it deserves to draw the attention of the government to the plight of this poor police officer who is on the verge of losing both eyes because he was delivering on the constitutional mandate of the police, maintaining law and order. The media should have asked whether the police officer who lost one of his eyes was properly equipped to discharge his duties but to hell with a police officer who has lost his eyes. Who cares even if he dies? That is not the interest of the media but rather a supposedly drunk police officer whose story is of no credence and importance to our survival as Ghanaians as far as law enforcement are concerned is being given undue attention by the media just to waste our ears.
I personally monitored all the media outlets and the major news bulletins in this country but none of them reported this sad story about the police officer who lost the eye but rather flooded the media space with the unworthy story of this supposed police officer who is drunk and wielding an AK47 riffle in troski heading towards Madina. All of sudden some of the major news network started to interview the likes of Dr. Kwesi Anning, Irbard Ibrahim and all the security analysts in this country to know the security implications of a supposed police officer who is drunk and wielding an AK47 in a troski and I was like what? Sick media!
The media needs “Obinim sticker” to be credible considering how they can very petty at times when it comes to news about the police service and the levels of gross ignorance exhibited by some of these media practitioners who called themselves journalists is very legendary.
Some mentally barren people who call themselves journalists and I sometimes wonder how they became one
Ahanta Apemenyimheneba Kwofie III dkwofie17@gmail.com
#Ahantasdiaries_02_07_18
