Fifty Years of the Media’s Struggle for Democracy in Ghana: Legacies and Encumbrances

Abstract

Ghana's media history has been chequered and marred by decades of political as well as economic instability. Just as in other sub-Saharan African countries, the Ghanaian press was at the forefront of political struggles for liberation from colonial rule and, later, in the vanguard of opposition to dictatorial rule. But for long periods postindependence, the media were also ineffectual watchdogs, often functioning as tools of the succession of military regimes which ruled the country from the mid-1960s through the 1970s and 1980s. The lifting of restrictions on the media was a prerequisite for Ghana's transition back to democracy in 1993 as well as a dividend of economic and political liberalization. The manner in which the media were appropriated in the long process of nationbuilding has had a bearing on how they function in today's democratic environment. This paper examines Ghana's media history, dividing it into five phases, and also paying attention to future prospects.