Access to information during the December 7 elections will now be sold to the media before they can disseminate to the general public.
According to the Electoral Commission (EC), it will demand accreditation fees from journalists who wish to cover the elections on December 7.
Even though the Commission is yet to determine the fee to be paid by each journalist for the accreditation, I am of the view that information will now be for sale and that can hinder the in-depth coverage of the elections.
Before I continue, kindly permit me to re-produce the statement issued by the EC to the effect that journalists will be required to pay yet to be known fee for accreditation.
The Commission wishes to announce that it will from Monday, 31st October to Monday 7th of November 2016 accept applications from media houses who are interested in observing the upcoming Presidential and Parliamentary Elections.
All media houses who would wish to observe the elections are hereby requested to submit the names and details of their personnel per the enclosed format to the Commission by close of day Monday, 7th of November 2016.
All requests for accreditation should be sent through the Regional representatives of the GJA to the Communications Unit of the Electoral Commission or by email at: mediaoffice@ec.gov.gh.
Accreditation tags will be given to only those who have formally applied for it and for a fee to be determined by the Commission.
Any request submitted after the deadline of 7th November, 2016 will not be considered.
At this moment, permit me to ask these few questions.
Why has EC taken such a decision?
Does that mean the EC wants to prevent more journalists from covering the elections like it disqualified twelve (12) presidential aspirants from contesting?
What is the EC using its budget approved by Parliament for?
Does that mean the EC did not factor into their budget for the elections the media accreditation?
Or, does the EC want to extort money from media houses?
Whatever may be the reason, none of them makes sense to me as an ordinary person and I am sure millions of Ghanaians share the same sentiment.
This is because, such decision will prevent thousands of journalists from covering the election and that can spell doom for the nation. Such decision can bring financial hardship on the media houses because I am not sure any media house anticipated such move by the EC. This will add up to the already fears that social media will be blocked during the Election Day.
Some of us were around since 1992 elections (I did not vote in 1992 though), I am not sure there was any payment. I have covered and organized for my media houses elections from 2004, 2008 to 2012 and no journalist paid even a pesewa for any accreditation.
Let me use my media organization for example, Media General (MG) which includes TV3, Onua FM in Accra, 3FM also in Accra, Akoma FM in Kumasi and Connect FM in Takoradi.
I happened to be part of the election committee for the four radio stations and I am reliably informed that, all the four radio stations are going to use 275 reporters/correspondents; meaning, each constituency is going to have at least one reporter/correspondent.
Even with that number, we told management it is not enough to cover the entire country because some constituency can have several polling stations dotted around. We are therefore pushing for at least, five reporters/correspondents in every constituency.
Folks, assuming management approves such number of reporters, you can imagine how much MG Radio alone will pay to the EC to secure accreditation for these reporters/correspondents.
Again, TV3 alone has a plan to also recruit 275 reporters/correspondents across the country and I am sure they are also arguing that the number is not enough for each constituency.
This is the time the media must unit and fight the EC because we know the EC was given money from the tax payer budgeted for the elections.
The EC did not generate the funds that are being use to run the election by itself.
Yes, the EC received some donor funds apart from the budget approved by the Parliament of Ghana but that money was donated to them in the name of the people of Ghana and not in the name of EC.
EC is not supposed to generate money from the people of Ghana but are to organize public elections for the people of Ghana.
The Ghana Journalists Association, led by Dr. Roland Affail Monney and the Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) led by my own friend, senior and brother, Akwasi Agyeman must stand against such demands from the EC because it will hinder the coverage of the elections.
I wish the inky fraternity can come together and say we shall not cover the elections if the EC is charging us a fee for the accreditation and let see what will happen.
If we pay for such fee, it will set a bad precedent for other public institutions who also organize public events. They can equally charge the media for accreditation to enable them cover events.
I am by this calling on the GJA and GIBA to act immediately to avert extortion by the EC.
I am urging the National Peace Council, Christian Council of Ghana, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches, the Chief Imam, the National House of Chiefs, Imams in the country, and other well meaning bodies to as a matter of urgency, intervene in the impending confusion which can arise during the elections.
The writer is a Producer with Onua 95.1FM
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