NDC ranked number 1 in use of indecent, abusive language on radio
NDC ranked number 1 in use of indecent, abusive language: The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been ranked as the most abusive political party on radio due to the indecent and offensive language they use on air.
This was cited in a report by the Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MWFA) election 2020 campaign language monitoring project.
The survey which was conducted on the monitoring of 597 programmes on 20 selected radio stations between the period of June 1 to June 14, 2020 showed that representatives and affiliates of the opposition NDC recorded the highest use of indecent expressions on radio.
Findings from the report detailed 51 indecent expressions made up of insulting and offensive comments, unsubstantiated allegations, expressions calling for confrontation and violence, and threats from 22 individuals.
Out of the 22 individuals, 15 persons were identified as representatives and affiliates of four political parties; that is the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), United Front Party (UFP) and Convention People’s Party (CPP) while the remaining 7 who made abusive remarks could not be established.
The 15 identified political party affiliates made 35 (69%) of the 51 indecent expressions recorded over the monitoring period.
A report showing the total number of indecent expressions recorded by affiliates of the 4 political parties showed NDC with the highest of 17.
The NDC made 7 insulting and offensive remarks, 7 unsubstantiated allegations and 3 expressions calling for confrontation and violence.
This was followed by the NPP with 15 indecent expressions; made up of 8 insulting and offensive remarks, 3 unsubstantiated allegations and 2 expressions calling for confrontation and violence.
The UFP and CPP recorded 2 and 1 respectively.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Programmes Officer of MFWA, Kwaku Krobea Asante said the goal of the project was to shift the conversations on radio from insults to issues to make sure there is a very healthy media and radio conversations.
Detailing how they arrived at the conclusions, he said they sampled radio stations that previously demonstrated that they have a lot of people passing indecent comments on there and also some of the radio stations that are pro-political and finally looked at radio stations that have programming based on political issues.
Moreover, they had people who monitored the stations daily with focus on selected radio’s news bulletins, political discussions and current affairs.
The 20 recruited personnel were trained on the use of monitoring instrument and each was assigned to a digital recorder for purposes of recording the programmes they monitored.
They then send daily reports to MFWA which are analysed by a team of programme staff and researchers for a consolidated report to be produced.
Explaining why the English radio stations were not captured in the report unlike the local stations, he said “based on our previous monitoring exercise, we realised that the local speaking stations tend to have a lot of indecent speaking expressions used out there so it is only consistent that we look at this key local speaking radio stations and then proceed from there.”
Moreover, out of the 20 radio stations monitored 13 recorded indecent expressions.
Accra-based Oman FM recorded 16, that is the highest number of indecent expressions on two programmes of the station; National Agenda (11) and Boiling Point (5). Power FM, also based in Accra, followed with 10 indecent expressions, all of which were recorded on its Inside Politics programme. Nkawkaw-based Obuoba FM followed with six indecent expressions.
Report by the Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MWFA) election 2020 campaign language monitoring project
–: abcnewsgh
