Statement: Indecent Expressions On Radio Reduce Significantly

Week 12 of the Media Foundation for West Africa�s (MFWA) monitoring of indecent expressions on radio shows a significant reduction in the use of indecent expressions. The latest findings which covered June 17-23, 2012 recorded a total of five indecent expressions. All the indecent expressions were made on five different radio stations. Again, supporters of the two major political parties in the country, the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), were the main culprits in the use of the indecent expressions. While supporters of the NDC made three of the indecent expressions, the NPP followed closely with two. Fred Agbenyo, a member of the NDC Communications Team, and Matthew Opoku Prempeh, an NPP Member of Parliament for Manyhia, were among those found to have used indecent expressions during the period. This is the second time that less than 10 indecent expressions have been recorded since the beginning of the monitoring exercise in April 2012. The first was during Week Four (April 22 to28, 2012) of the monitoring where nine indecent expressions were recorded. Male supporters/members of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) were the main culprits in the use of indecent expressions. During the week in focus, no female was captured to have used an indecent expression. Specifically also, there was no gender-related indecent expression, the same as the previous week. Monitoring language-use on radio is a project by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) with funding from STAR-Ghana. The project is aimed at ensuring issues-based and decent language campaigning in this year�s polls. It involves daily monitoring of language/ expressions by politicians and activists on specific programmes on 31 selected radio stations across the country. General Findings on Expressions used A total of 62 reports were received on programmes monitored on the 31 radio stations selected for the project. Indecent expressions were captured on five of the programmes and these were made up of three unsubstantiated allegations, one provocative remark and one innuendo. They were all made on political discussion programmes aired in the morning. The MFWA is encouraged that the level of indecent expressions on radio has reduced significantly for the twelfth week of monitoring. It is hoped that this trend will continue so that the electoral campaigns will be issues-based. The MFWA is also encouraging moderators to continue to handle their programmes with professionalism by insisting on the use of decent expressions by persons who appear on their programmes at all times.