Mr. A.B.A. Fuseini, Night Editor of the Daily Graphic, is questioning the purpose of the Ghana Journalists Association’s executives’ ongoing probe of the alleged unethical conduct of the Editor of the New Punch newspaper, Baby Ansaba.

The GJA says it is referring Mr. Ansaba to its Ethics and Disciplinary Committee after he admitted to publishing what he knew to be fabrications ahead of Ghana’s 2008 general elections.

But Mr. Fuseini, who is also Council Chairman of the Ghana Institute of Journalism, said he is baffled at the conduct of the GJA in Baby Ansaba’s case and wondered whether it is his admission of misconduct that interests the association’s leadership or the alleged breach of the ethics of the journalism profession.

According to A.B.A. Fuseini, who was speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme on Thursday, Baby Ansaba should be commended for his boldness to admit what could largely encourage similarly erring colleagues to attend their work with a sharp reminder to adopt best industry practices.

But if the GJA’s interest is fanned by any desire to punish his misconduct, then the association is being very hypocritical and making Ato Sam a scapegoat because there have been several and more serious breaches of ethical standards across the media landscape without the GJA raising as much as a voice.

He said the Daily Guide newspaper for instance, has rendered apologies several times to persons it has fabricated stories against but the association has said nothing about it.

A.B.A. Fuseini again alleged that the group of journalists commonly called “The Coffee Shop Mafia,” similarly fabricated a story accusing another journalist, Kwesi Pratt, of collecting about $125,000 in bribe money but the association did not even wink at the breach.

“We were in this country when a group of journalists, I christened them “The Coffee Shop Mafia” - journalists who have constituted themselves into a group to deliberately peddle falsehood, concoct and peddle false stories and who have gotten in league with politicians and politicians were funding them to peddle these things and we had them peddle this $125,000 story against a fellow journalist, Kwesi Pratt…”.

“$125 allegation of bribery against a fellow journalist was concocted and peddled by journalists. Kweku Baako,… Sonny Deka, Kwami Sefa Kayi, we had all of them inside. .. Members of “The Coffee Shop Mafia”, those are the people I’m mentioning. They were there, they were the perpetrators of this serious act of misconduct. This thing was brought to the attention of the GJA, the GJA never investigated, they never found it worthy of doing so…”

A.B.A. Fuseini said he has no problem if the association is keen to rein in its erring members, in which case it must devote attention to all such cases of infractions, however to single out Baby Ansaba, or to make a scapegoat of him is most unfair.

“I think that we must broaden the net and ensure that all these charlatans who are out there disparaging the profession should be dealt with…”


Source: Myjoyonline.com/Ghana

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