To increase journalists' safety, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has recommended for the establishment of institutional support mechanisms. The Foundation stated that in order to improve the safety of journalists in the nation, media organisations urgently need to develop institutional supports and interventions like insurance plans.
The Foundation on Media Professionalism and Safety of Journalists, Policies and Practices in Newsrooms in the Country published a report that included these information. When Mr. Kwaku Krobea Asante, MFWA's programme officer, presented the study's findings during a session the Foundation organised in Accra, he made notice of the fact that a lot of media organisations lacked institutional support for the protection of journalists.
He explained that the lack of safety policies and media organisations' disregard for promoting the safety of its journalists were to blame for the frequency of crimes against journalists.
Out of the 40 media outlets that were examined throughout the 16 areas, he said that only 15 had any form of safety for journalists. Only five of the 15 had insurance packages, and the handful that did possess safety instructions only had one or two sentences.
Four out of five journalists relied on their knowledge of the work, friends, and the use of their "brain" or intuition when faced with safety difficulties, according to Mr. Asante. The other journalists, who were distributed over 11 media firms, claimed they followed the rules. "The people who are supposed to provide security or protection for journalists are actually those leading in perpetrating violence against them," he claimed, adding that the study also showed that security agencies were the dominant perpetrators of violence against journalists, followed by political party affiliates.
Regarding professionalism, Mr. Asante said his organisation has seen some ethical transgressions after a year of monitoring about 26 media outlets, with local radio stations being the biggest offenders.
Although the print media also published false headlines, pornographic images, and permitted profanity in the comment areas of their news websites, he continued, "they were a little more careful and seemed more professional in their conduct." The research advised media regulatory agencies and groups to play active roles in guaranteeing the execution of safety regulations in newsrooms, including insurance plans, and called on the government to support the safety and protection of journalists.
Additionally, it urged media owners to train journalists and presenters in best practises and emphasised the need for coordinated action among media stakeholders to ensure that professionals uphold ethical standards.
The deputy minister of information, Madam Fatimatu Abubakar, stated that there needed to be coordinated measures to address the problem of journalist safety.
".. Collective efforts in terms of educating the Ghanaian people, giving practitioners the confidence to raise some of these concerns, and equipping the regulatory agencies to have the chance to research, validate, and contact different stakeholders.
The biggest challenge to the practise of journalism, according to Madam Abubakar, is a loss of public confidence.
"With the advent of the digital age, many people now copy the work of journalists, but they don't even want to be called journalists. Therefore, it is crucial that we make a distinction between content producers who are not journalists and journalists.
The safety of journalists is of utmost importance, thus "we need to closely preserve it," according to Mr. Alexander Bannerman, Deputy Executive Secretary of the National Media Commission (NMC).
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To increase journalists' safety, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has recommended for the establishment of institutional support mechanisms. The Foundation stated that in order to improve the safety of journalists in the nation, media organisations urgently need to develop institutional supports and interventions like insurance plans.
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