Ghana: Media Complicity in Human Rights Violations

Abstract

Following the examples of South Africa, Nigeria and some Latin American countries, Ghana instituted a truth and reconciliation commission to investigate human rights abuses inflicted during periods of unconstitutional rule. This article interrogates media complicity in bolstering unconstitutional governments and their culpability in past human rights abuses in Ghana. Through a qualitative analysis of newspapers and focus group discussions with journalists, this paper examines the manner in which the media (as an institution) were both victims and victimisers during some of the periods investigated by Ghana's National Reconciliation Commission. Drawing on theories of hegemony, it examines strategies of legitimisation used by the media in creating fertile grounds for state repression and the abuse of human rights and the methods used by repressive governments to ensure media compliance.