Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam George, is not enthused about Ghana’s performance in the latest World Press Freedom Index.
In its latest Index, Ghana ranked 50th out of 180 countries, an improvement on 2023’s 62nd place.
Aspects considered include the media landscape, legal framework, political situation, economy, safety, and sociocultural context.
Information Minister-designate, Fatima Abubakar, expressed her elation on JoyNews’ AM Show and was confident that the Ministry will do more to build on the strides made.
However, Sam George says the development is still nothing to write home about.
Speaking on the same show, the legislator insisted that the ranking being touted is a far cry from the stellar performance over the past decade.
He further recounted that the index reflected a positive outlook during the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime.
“Even with this best performance, it is not half as good as the worst performance as Mahama,” he said on Friday, May 3, 2024.
Sam George emphasised that “they should take us back to our days of 27th, and of being number one and number two, then we will celebrate it.”
The research conducted by Reporters Without Borders singled out media platforms such as “the Joy News channel, the Myjoyonline website and radio Peace FM” as “very popular and reflect a high degree of pluralism and diversity.”
In the political context, however, the report recounted an incident where some members of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) forcefully invaded the studios of UTV in Accra.
“Nonetheless, the ruling party wrote to the Despite Media Group, which runs the privately owned United TV channel, in October 2023 requesting the inclusion of one of its members in the TV channel’s broadcasts in order, it said, to ensure balance. ”
Globally, the findings show that a growing number of political authorities are not doing their best to ensure a conducive environment for journalism and the public’s right to unbiased news and information.