Govt outlines measures to address safety issues of journalists raised in latest Press Freedom ranking

The government of Ghana has outlined some measures to help promote press freedom and the safety of journalists.

This follows the latest drop of Ghana’s ranking from 30th to 60th on the global Press Freedom ranking.

Ghana has also recorded its worst ranking on the African continent this year, moving from 3rd to 10th in Africa.

The government has however attributed Ghana’s poor ranking in the Reporters Without Borders 2022 World Press Freedom Index to a change in the methodology.

The Information Ministry in a statement issued on Wednesday, May 4, 2022, said it welcomes the RSF report as a baseline reference document against which press freedom in the country may be gauged in the coming years.

The statement indicated that several other countries also dropped including the Netherlands which dropped from 5th in 2021 to 28th in 2022 in the global ranking.

“Due to this development, four (4) of the countries (Netherlands, Jamaica, Switzerland, and New Zealand) that ranked top ten (10) in 2021 significantly dropped in ranking, slumping out of the top ten (10) in the year under review.”

“It is worthy of note that Ghana’s dip in ranking was largely influenced by two of the new parameters, namely, the Economic Context and Safety of Journalists where the country scored 47.22% and 62.25% respectively.”

“It is also striking that the new report took into consideration the effect of opinion media, propaganda, disinformation, and fake news and their adverse impact on press freedom ranking for affected countries. This is a result of growing political and social tensions leading to information distortions and the publication of false news, particularly across social media platforms,” it added.

The measures adopted by the government are as follows;

1. Work in collaboration with the National Media Commission to deepen the execution of the Coordinated Mechanisms for the safety of journalists.
2. Collaborate with stakeholders including Civil Society Organizations in deepening education for state and non-state actors on the safety of journalists
3. To address the RFS’ concern about the poor economic conditions of most journalists in the country, governed continue engagements with media associations including media owners to improve the working and economic conditions of journalists.
4. Collaborate with stakeholders in the fight against disinformation and the spread of fake news.

By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana