Joy FM Super Morning Show host misled public — NMC
The National Media Commission (NMC) has ruled that Joy FM’s Super Morning Show host, Mr Kojo Yankson, misled the public with the contents of a broadcast that the Attorney-General, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, had not been involved in the arrangement to bring the two Guantanamo Bay (GITMO) detainees to Ghana.
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The commission also ruled that the contents of that broadcast were not fair to Mrs Appiah-Opong.
Broadcast
Mr Yankson had, on January 13, 2016, made a broadcast to the effect that Mrs Appiah-Opong had told him that she had not been involved in the processes to bring the two GITMO detainees to Ghana.
A statement signed and issued by the NMC’s Deputy Executive Secretary, Mr Alexander Bannerman, said at the NMC Settlement Committee hearing, Mr Yankson could not substantiate the claim he had made in the said broadcast.
“At the commission’s Complaints Settlement Committee hearing on July 13, 2016, at which both parties — Mrs Appiah-Opong and Mr Yankson — were present with their legal counsel, it was concluded that the interviewer, Yankson, did not adequately introduce himself to Attorney-General Appiah-Opong and did not disclose his purpose for the interview, as is consistent with ethical protocols of interviewing,” it said.
Untrue and misleading broadcast
It said the committee dealt with the complaint filed by Mrs Appiah-Opong against Mr Yankson and the Multimedia Group Limited concerning a broadcast which she found to be untrue and calculated to mislead the public.
She also found the broadcast and publication to be defamatory.
She stated that she had been approached by a gentleman who had asked her under which laws the government of Ghana was keeping two Gitmo detainees of the US government in Ghana.
She maintained that the gentleman did neither introduce himself to her, nor did he indicate that he was conducting an interview.
She, therefore, directed him to speak to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, who was nearby, on the matter.
Subterfuge
The statement said according to her, the gentleman turned out to be the host of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show who later broadcast on radio that the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice had told him she had not been involved in the arrangements relating to how the two Gitmo detainees were brought into the country.
The NMC’s ruling was in exercise of the powers conferred on it under Article 167 (b) of the 1992 Constitution to “take all appropriate measures to ensure the establishment and maintenance of the highest journalistic standards in the mass media, including investigation, mediation and settlement of complaints made against or by the press or other mass media”.