The African University College of Communication (AUCC) in collaboration with the International Institute for ICT Journalism (Penplusbytes) a network of media organizations and journalists working in the ICT journalism space in Africa and beyond, organized a press briefing at AUCC”s “Discovery House” at Adabraka on 22nd January 2009. The press briefing was on the topic “Coverage of Elections in Ghana and Kenya: Lessons for Africa's Democracy.” Thirty (30) journalists participated in the press briefing which was chaired by distinguished professor of journalism of AUCC Prof. Alfred Opubor.

Prof. Opubor indicated in his remarks that the Ghanaian media should not only focus on the activities of political parties and their respective candidates during their coverage of elections, but should also be interested in covering the activities of the other institutions of democracy like the electoral commission, the media commission and the ordinary voters. He said that democracy was not something that happened once every four years when people exercised their franchise but rather, elections placed a searchlight on what had been happening in the country in between those four years. Prof. Opubor stated that free and fair elections could only occur in a free and just society where the people demonstrated a commitment to build a society in which their rights were guaranteed. He also proposed among other things, that AUCC establishes a centre for election coverage and media monitoring as an institutional mechanism for monitoring elections in Ghana and the rest of the world.

AUCC’s Dean of Journalism, Absalom Mutere, former chairman of Kenya Media Council (2002-2007) led the panel discussion. In his address Prof. Mutere gave a summary of the contribution of the media to the Kenyan crisis in 2007 and the lessons learnt.

A member of the panel, Mr. Eric Osiakwan of Penplusbytes presented the preliminary findings of the media content monitoring project which was organized by Penplusbytes in collaboration with AUCC during the 2008 elections in Ghana.

Ms. Alison Bethel, Knight International Journalism Fellow, and a panelist at the briefing, also stated that her observations were limited to the two Ghanaian media houses she monitored during the 2008 elections. According to her, one of the media houses she monitored came very close to inciting their listeners towards violence with the kind of inflammatory reportage they put on air about the elections. Thus, although the election in Ghana were generally considered as almost conflict-free, there were indeed pockets of violence that were committed in a few places. She reminded the media personnel of the contribution of their counterparts to the Rwandan genocide and the more recent carnage that occurred in Kenya. Ms. Bethel also encouraged the journalists to adhere to the ethics of their profession and endeavour to find out the views of the other minority parties when covering stories about elections since the views of smaller political parties also counted in a democratic election. She cautioned media personnel in Ghana to be aware of enormous powers they wielded when it came to building and sustaining democracy and use these powers responsibly when reporting elections.

Prof. Reggie Jackson, Professor emeritus, Visual Communications, AUCC, who was also a panelist, stated in his remarks that although photography in Ghana seems to be used predominantly for snapshots and for advertising, he had observed that Ghana together with many developing countries did not have a very long tradition of photojournalism. He questioned whether the tenets of photojournalism were practiced during the 2008 elections in Ghana since the international news media had showed inflammatory images worldwide as though fighting was going on in Ghana because one political party or another was not winning. He ended by stating that there was the need for a distinction to be made between practice and standards when it came to photojournalism in Ghana.

The President of AUCC, Mr. Kojo Yankah also stated that although the media had done a good job covering the just ended elections, it was unacceptable that some media houses incited their audience along ethnic lines. He encouraged the media personnel to be more nationalistic and Pan-African when publishing stories. He further stated that private media houses should openly declare their political inclinations to their reporters and staff so that employees were fully aware of the position of the media house.