Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association announced plans for a new ethics code.(Credit: Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association, screenshot)

Four media groups announced they will monitor radio and television outlets to see if the broadcasters violate the Ghana Journalists Association’s code of ethics, My Joy Online reported.

The groups — The Media Foundation for West Africa, the National Media Commission, the Ghana Journalists’ Association and the Advertising Association of Ghana — will “sanction” any Ghanaian broadcasters “who allow their platform to be used by politicians to engage in the campaign of insults and lies,” by calling for the public to stop listening to those outlets and the media to stop buying advertisements from them.

Related, Ghana’s Independent Broadcasters Association plans to publish a new ethics code before the elections later this year, according to an ISD news report on the Ghana government’s website.  We have written to GIBA for more information and will update with any response.

In February, we wrote about Ghana National Media Commission chairman Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihene’s call for Ghana media to avoid sensationalism and bias in its election reporting.

At a student journalism club, a Ghana News Agency news director, Charles Koomson, advised radio journalists to follow journalsim ethics in its reporting and to avoid sensationalism, the Regional News of Monday reported.

Koomson recommended radio stations train journalists in ethics and that journalists act as watchdogs.

He also highlighted an ethical issue in Ghana’s media, according to the Regional News.  Koomson claimed that “some radio newscasters” insert “‘unwanted or unnecessary’ proverbs and anecdots that rendered the news unethical.”

Meanwhile, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams called for the media to provide balanced articles in its coverage of the elections, according to GBC Ghana.  Duncan-Williams is “the general overseer of the Action Chapel International.”   The elections are scheduled for Dec. 7, 2012, according to Ghana Web.

Duncan-Williams is quoted by Ghana Web as saying that “Media is a powerful tool which can be used for good and for evil.”