THERE WILL BE INK - Initiative for Policy Dialogue

state-funded newspapers seemed to have the best computers – new Apple desktops – and it seemsfair to assume that they may have been donated to the government.Moreover, given the relatively low salaries of journalists, many are unable to cover even basicjournalism-related expenses themselves, like travel or research materials (though many said theywould if they could). A few dedicated journalists said they spent their own money to travel to otherparts of Ghana to report on important stories, but that this practice was costly and unsustainable.George Frimpong, of the Chronicle, said that “as long as there is poverty, there will be a problemwith resources for journalists.” Hopefully, some alternative can be developed to provide suchresources to journalists before Ghana eradicates poverty.Challenges to reporting on the extractive industries in GhanaReporting on the extractive industries in Ghana presents a series of challenges specific to the sector.These challenges include the vast resources of the extractive sector businesses themselves (which areused to great effect at self-promotion and the buying-off of media organizations), a profound lack ofexpertise on extractive issues among Ghanaian journalists, government intervention in stories criticalof the extractives and a general lack of interest among the media-consuming public (and journalists)about the negative impact of extractive industries on Ghana.Foremost among these challenges is the great imbalance between the resources of the Ghanaianmedia and the resources of the extractive sector companies. The latter, of course, dwarf that of theGhanaian media. Indeed, the Ghana public relations budget for Newmont, a prominent Americanmining company with major operations in Ghana, is probably comparable to the budgets of severalof Ghana’s larger private dailies combined.Extractive sector businesses use their resources in several different ways, some direct and someindirect, to influence coverage of their activities, according to those Ghanaians interviewed for thisreport.Firstly, extractive industry businesses are major advertisers in Ghanaian newspapers. Theseadvertisements affect coverage because, oftentimes, newspaper publishers don’t want to risk loss ofincome by publishing stories critical of the extractives sector companies that are also buying space inthe newspaper. Ama Achia, a reporter with Public Agenda, said that mining companies effectivelybought off much of Ghana’s media, because, she says, the media “cannot bite the hand that feedsyou.”The extractive industry companies are also able to affect coverage by controlling the stories that arewritten about the industry. On the one hand, some journalists allege that some companies essentiallypay journalists directly for positive coverage. Much more common, according to journalists, is thepractice of companies funding junkets for journalists to travel to areas in Ghana where the extractiveindustries are present (most often the mining areas of Ghana, as oil is still a new sector). Thesejunkets, usually luxurious, with journalists put up in extravagant hotels and fed in expensiverestaurants, are usually scheduled down to the minute, so that journalists only receive the companyline. As noted above, journalists are not able to take these trips on their own, for lack of fundingfrom their media houses. Therefore, these trips are often the only occasions during which reportersexperience the extractive industries firsthand. If these company-organized trips are the sole influenceon journalists’ perception of extractives, then obviously their reporting will reflect that perception.– 48 –