Media not performing its watchdog role effectively – MFWA
MFWA trains 10 fellows in investigative journalism
The Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) Sulemana Braimah, has bemoaned the current state of the Media in Ghana and the West Africa sub-region as a whole.
Accordingly to Braimah, the state of the media in the sub-region is of great concern because an ineffective media will not help improve the livelihood of the citizenry.
Speaking at an event to mark the passing out of fellows of MFWA's Next Generation Investigative Journalism, the executive director said, "crisis in journalism does not just impact journalists. The impact is on the wellbeing of society."
He said that the media in West Africa is confronted by a lot of issues which has made them largely ineffective in performing their duty as a watchdog and the fourth branch of government by holding officeholders accountable and ensuring the protection of the rights of the vulnerable.
"People expect the media to be at the forefront of the crusade for transparency, accountability and good governance.
"Unfortunately, our media are themselves caught up in the same challenges which them incapable or unable to play their roles effectively. These challenges include corruption in media low capacity among journalists, resource limitations partisanship, and repression and abuse of critical journalists by state and non-state actors," he said.
To help resolve these challenges, the executive director said, the MFWA is putting in robust and comprehensive measures to tackle the challenges confronting journalism in Ghana and the sub-region.
‘… as part of our efforts to deal with the crisis confronting journalism, the MFWA has gone beyond its routine media capacity building and press freedom advocacy efforts to start two in-house journalism initiatives: a fact-checking initiative called Fact-Check Ghana, aimed at helping to combat the pandemic of misinformation, and the Fourth Estate as an independent, non-profit investigative journalism project,” he said.
He added that the two initiatives have helped raise the quality of journalism for media persons in Ghana and other countries in the sub-region.
He further disclosed MFWA's Next Generation Investigative Journalism (NGIJ) Fellowship which is funded by DW Academy, is another initiative by the foundation to groom the next generation of journalists by helping them “acquire the requisite skills, mindset, integrity and passion to do critical, fact-based and solutions-oriented journalism.”
The first cohort of the NGIJ Fellowship made up of 10 young Ghanaian journalists passed out at the event.
The fellows went through a-five month training and mentorship programme and received training in data journalism, mobile journalism, fact-checking as well as the process of applying for information at the Right to Information (RTI) Commission.
Executive Director of MFWA, Sulemana Braimah presenting a certificate to one of the fellows