On PENSDOWN: Conversations Worth Your Time, Stephen Gyasi Jnr, Ghana-based communication trainer and Digital Strategist hosts Jonathan Ofori, Nothern Sector Editor, Dailymailgh.com and editor of the Kumasi branch at Assase radio.
Ofori, shares, in this piece, his Journalism story and some of the challenges journalists face in everyday reporting.
Stephen Gyasi Jnr:
Some people got into journalism by accident, some by design, what is your own story? How did you discover the Journalist in you?
Ofori :
I wouldn’t say it was an accident. I’d say it was a divine encounter. Journalism is a divine profession. Looking at what really exists in our surroundings, and our society, it motivated us to dump the chalk and pick the pen ourselves to highlight what people want to see here as far as our setting is concerned.
The journey started when I met this man who was a proprietor of a school and I was one of the staff. During a conversation with him, I realised that issues with sanitation were a great concern and that he needed it to be highlighted beyond what media practitioners have been doing.
In me, I knew what this man wants to tell me is that there was a potential in me to highlight what people want to hear. For me, that was when the journey started. I started as a journalist and had to go to a journalism school. While in school at the university, we did on-the-job training. In Ghana, as you know, radio stations call you when you have news. Whether or not they call you is their editorial discretion. So we were just freelancing, but the breakthrough was when I covered the assembly election for the then municipal chief executive for Asokore. So, using social media, I sought to draw people’s attention to what was going on in my jurisdiction and that was when the journey started. I did a comprehensive report about how the man in question was elected, and that began the end of my journey in Sika Fm, when XYZ, saw the news and the stuff in me, we began a conversation for me to join the team as a full-blown staff of XYZ broadcasting.
Dailymail has been the fulcrum of my journalism career. Set up by my boss, Kent Mensah who has been pivotal in this journey. He has been encouraging some of us to pursue what we want to do.
The Dailymail was set up by Kent, me and some top editors in Ghana. So I was to be the northern sector editor of that online platform, then recommendations were made and that was how we landed the ‘Asasse’ job
How many years has it been in all through this journey, from your time as a cub reporter up until this time?
It is close to 10 years now, adding when I started as a freelance Journalist, it is 10 years now.
In these 10 years, what will you say stands out as the most challenging assignment you have had to Cover?
That’s a million-dollar question. I have been covering events, some very bloody, some violent I may say. One of them that stands out and indeed put our lives in jeopardy is the recent clashes between police, the military and the people of Ejura Constituency. There was a protest about the death of the community men by social media activists which escalated. When police boldly wanted to calm things down which resulted in opening fire and killing two people, in the process, in fact, journalists at the time, including myself, were caught up in this crossfire and it was between myself and God because you may be hit by stray bullets. In such circumstances, it was a challenging moment for me because at a point you may, have to wonder whether or not you may be returning home because it was a very violent moment for us to cover.
On the near-death experience in the line of duty, when you got home that evening, did this kind of experience shake your resolve to reconsider journalism as a profession or it rather strengthened your desire to do more and become a voice for the voiceless?
I must say that it wasn’t a very easy situation for some of us, especially where you see lives ended as a result of bullets fired, where you have to even report from hospitals where people are wounded, you find yourself wondering if you were in the same situation when this happens. Some of us got depressed, and at some point, we wanted to quit because it was a very troubling situation for us considering that we had to endure at the end of the day, merge that with work activities as well because your editors won’t mind, whether or not you see dead bodies, you still have to report. So some of us nearly said goodbye to the job, but we were encouraged by our colleagues. For some of us, our family members were counsellors as well so fortunately for us we use that intervention in the form of counselling as a form of encouragement. It was very challenging but such interventions like I’ve said, did the trick.
These ten years you have been here and there has witnessed a lot of attrition. So many highly trained, highly qualified journalists have abandoned the booths, some of them have landed in public relations or just anything that they can lay their hands on, what do you think is accounting for this rate of attrition in journalists?
It’s simple, a chunk of us pursue our own interests rather than the national interest. A chunk of us are working in media houses owned by politicians. So, at some point in time, we just dance to the gallery of these politicians. At some point, because of hardship, journalists will succumb to offers which clearly will not put food on the table, but they want to be seen working. So, when they find themselves in such a situation, they have to sell their conscience sometimes to these politicians, such that they end up being offered juicy appointments all in the name of serving their own interests.
We have a chunk of us who eye positions in government and even in government agencies, so the long and short of it is that we still need to put food on the table. We cannot make the country move forward, so if these politicians are at the helm of Affairs, why don’t we be on the same page with them? And I find it very scandalous on our part in this part of the country because we are the fourth estate of the realm. When these things happen, when the journalist is starved, when the journalists are under-resourced, I tell you, the possibility of reporting good content will be very low and we cannot save our democracy.
With the political ownership of the media, a lot of politicians and politically exposed persons are now setting up and owning media establishments, we are a young fledging democracy, are we courting trouble? Is there a reason to be worried or all is well?
Well, it is a worrying trend, especially when you have these politicians grabbing radio frequencies themselves. Although it is being regulated, how it is being regulated needs to be looked at. Another thing we have to bear in mind is the fact that looking at how the situation is, I see it is the politicians who set the agenda for us because we are vulnerable. They have monitored or observed the situation that even our unions are now toothless. This has derailed the exact fundamentals of how a journalist should be working. If I am pursuing an investigative piece, and I know that what I am doing will expose the wrath, I should be protected, I some be given the resources if I am to do my work devoid of any political interference. But here’s the case, actions and inactions from journalists and even our leadership appear to thwart these efforts.
These are some of the things we have to look at otherwise we will not become a strong force and we will end up allowing the politicians to bulldoze themselves into our territory. This, for me, is a very dangerous situation and can put our credibility in jeopardy
How has social media shaped the practice of Journalism?
Well, it has its strengths, it has its weakness. Let me start with the weakness. We can’t run away from the era of fake news, where people, journalists like myself, and some of us play foul in spreading fake news. Because we have a social media platform, we always tend to violate the ethics of Journalism. Such that news items are not verified before we just published them there. To some extent, we always find ourselves landing into defamation suits. We publish unverified news items. The least we can do is just flood it on social media pages which tend to injure or bring organisations into disrepute. Some of us have been subjects of lawsuits. In fact, it could even lead us to situations where we will be even jettisoned by our media organisation. I have seen many times where journalists would face court for defamation and be left to their fate by their media organisation because clearly, when their lawyers study it and think the company may be held liable, they have to just leave you to your fate and you fight your own fight. So it comes down to the need for media circles to be strengthened and we have to unionise to pursue our agenda.
The positives. So many.
I have posted a story about a building which was near collapse and an intervention was made and the story was posted on social media across all my platforms. So there are so many benefits to these social media engagements. It has exposed some of us to new trends of sending information which could connect to so many people across the world. It has also exposed us to new opportunities. For some of us, we even get to hear of journalism opportunities on social media. Some are held virtually, and with some, you have to travel and expose yourself to many things in the outside world. So, it has its positives and negatives but I will say the positive outweighs the negative only if we use it wisely.
PENSDOWN is an online conversation with Journalists – practising or otherwise – across the globe that focuses on their journalism journeys. It holds on YouTube ( / @pensdownofficial ) on Mondays at 1600hrs GMT. PENSDOWN brings to the fore, the struggles, high moments, lowest points, conditions of service and most challenging assignments that journalists have had to grapple with in their line of duty. It also gives news consumers, a rare inkling into the behind-the-scenes issues that directly affect Journalists in their line of duty.