Ghana Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
March 15, 2012
About the MSI
IREX designed the MSI to measure the strength and viability of any country's media sector. The MSI considers all the factors that contribute to a media system—the quality of journalism, effectiveness of management, the legal environment supporting freedom of the press, and more—to arrive at scores on a scale ranging between 0 and 4. These scores represent the strength of the media sector components and can be analyzed over time to chart progress (or regression) within a country. Additionally, countries or regions may be compared to one another. IREX currently conducts the MSI in 80 countries, and began studying Africa in 2006.
MSI Overview | Africa | Asia | Europe & Eurasia | Middle East & North Africa
Download Complete Ghana Chapter (PDF): 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2006/7 (français)
MSI Ghana-2010 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 2.55
The success of Ghana’s return to multi-party democracy in 1993, widely credited with advancing the role of the media in advocating the democratic values of free speech and expression, human rights, social justice, and civic consciousness, reinforces the theory that the fate of a country’s democratic development is closely tied to the state of the country’s media. Alongside exponential growth in both print and broadcast media since 1993, Ghana’s media win praise for their role in superintending five successful general elections, stimulating national discourse, and spotlighting issues of good governance and the rule of law in the country.
Before the 1992 constitution came into force, laws and edicts stemming from the country’s illiberal colonial and military past substantially constrained the media. The remarkable expansion of media plurality, and vibrant freedom of expression in general since then, is largely attributed to constitutional provisions guaranteeing the freedom and independence of the media and insulating media practitioners and institutions against any form of interference, censorship, or control. The constitution also obligates the state media to “afford fair opportunities and facilities for the presentation of divergent views and dissenting opinions.” Additionally, a rarity on the continent, Ghana has fully repealed criminal libel penalties—although the prospect of a potentially restrictive defamation law in its place still looms.
Notwithstanding the positive features of the legal environment, several incidents in 2010 highlight potential areas the legislation could strengthen. The Criminal Offenses Act of 1960 provides a path for the government and police to obstruct the press and charge journalists with “publishing false information.” In July, police interrogated the news editor of Joy FM radio and slapped the station with criminal charges for refusing to reveal its sources on a story alleging corruption over a contracting deal—although the police backtracked after pressure from media advocacy groups. There is also a need for an access-to-information law; a draft is currently stalled in the executive chambers.
However, the least enthusiastic scores went to Objective 2 (professional standards), amid growing concern about flagrant breaches of journalistic ethics, and poor standards of production and content of media output. The panelists attribute these shortcomings largely to the failure to match the exponential growth of media outlets with competent training and human resources standards—along with the fact that there are no quality-control certification or accreditation preconditions for practicing journalism in Ghana.
Still, the collective opinion of panelists is that on the whole, Ghana is moving inexorably closer to sustainability on the MSI scale. Considering that for each of the five broad MSI objectives the panel felt that Ghana had begun to meet most aspects of the criteria for determining the strength and sustainability of the media, the collective verdict was a positive, progressive (even if not necessarily exuberant) outlook for the country’s media system.
The Ghana study was coordinated by, and conducted in partnership with, the Media Foundation for West Africa, Accra.
