Ghana Media Sustainability Index (MSI)
April 24, 2013
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): 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006/7 | 2006/7 (français)
MSI Ghana - 2012 Introduction
Overall Country Score: 2.48
Two key developments in 2012 influenced the state of the media in Ghana. The first was presidential and parliamentary elections held on December 7. While the Ghanaian media were already noted for their blatant partisanship, the highly contentious character of elections in the country brought bipartisan polarization into even sharper relief. Parties and their candidates unleashed their arsenals of political propaganda, battle lines were drawn, and the electoral contest was reduced to a bare-knuckle, verbal slug match between the two dominant political parties. The media became witting pawns in this negative campaigning, with the consequence that media professional standards and ethical norms were tested and compromised.
The second significant development was the death on July 24 of President J. E. A. Mills. President Mills’s death provides a poignant illustration of the observation, as collectively expressed by the MSI panel, that the freedom of expression and media rights guaranteed under the constitution are bracketed by important social and cultural constraints. The sensitivity to cultural norms and the specter of social censorship seem to have frozen the partisan rhetoric in time; the otherwise stridently critical opposition press became temporary bedfellows with the pro-government media in their collective eulogizing of the late president and generally easing the typically adversarial rhetoric.
Perspective is important when considering the significance of these developments within the media sector. Prior to the 1992 constitution, only about 13 newspapers made sporadic appearances on the newsstands. The broadcast media were also limited to the state-owned Ghana Broadcasting Corporation’s (GBC) three national short-wave networks (Radio 1 and Radio 2, and the erratic External Radio Service) and three state-owned FM stations (Radio GAR in Accra, URA Radio in Bolgatanga, and the Apam Community FM station).
Since 1993, a set of constitutional provisions and regulatory enactments have combined to produce a media landscape that is quite liberal, relatively pluralistic, and increasingly vociferous. There are currently—according to a combined listing of the National Communications Authority (NCA), the National Media Commission (NMC), and the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA)—up to 466 registered newspapers, magazines, and journals; 286 FM radio stations; and 28 free-to-air/subscription television stations registered in the country. In addition, there are, according to the official tallies, as many as 59,086 Internet hosts in the Ghanaian domain and six cellular service operators catering to more than one-half of the total national population.
Overall, Ghana outperforms many countries in the region but still falls short of having a sustainable media system.
The Ghana study was coordinated by, and conducted in partnership with, the Media Foundation for West Africa, Accra.
