Founder of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC), Pastor Mensa Otabil, has delivered a damning assessment of the Ghanaian media, describing their content as “mediocre”.
According to him, it is better to watch animals on foreign channels than “contaminate” his soul with content from Ghanaian radio and TV stations.
Delivering a sermon during a service on Sunday, 4 March, 2018, the preacher said the Ghanaian media is very “depressing”, adding that he learns more from watching documentaries on animals than tuning in to local radio and TV stations.
“I don’t listen to Ghanaian radio much, I will listen maybe for 15 minutes and shut off because it’s very depressing. It will contaminate your soul,” Dr. Otabil said.
“I don’t watch Ghanaian TV much. I watch a little – one, two, three – and I say: ‘Oh, nothing has changed, go back’.
“I will watch animals, I’ll watch cheetah, I’ll watch lion, I’ll watch antelope anytime, I’ll watch cheetahs anytime, I’ll watch giraffes anytime because, at least, they’ll tell me how to hunt, how to get your goal, how to avoid being eaten. I’ll learn that from the antelope. At least, I’d come back and say: ‘Nobody will eat me’. But you [listen to] Ghanaian radio, watch Ghanaian TV and you wonder: ‘are we still here; the mediocrity?’”
Pastor Mensa Otabil
He further criticized the kind of journalism being practiced by local journalists, saying most media houses plan their daily programmes purely on the NDC and NPP.
According to him, most of the radio and TV stations “have nothing to talk about” aside discussing politics “morning, afternoon, evening”.
“Check all your top radio talk shows, take politics out and they have nothing to talk about again. I won’t even say take politics out, take NPP and NDC out – just say this morning, no NPP, no NDC, there’ll be no conversation because we can’t even think beyond two parties, we can’t think any ideas, we can’t think solutions and we are driving ourselves into this abyss of hopelessness,” the preacher complained.
He said the country is in a “huge mess” yet the media has done very little to get serious with reportage that lead to development.
Pastor Otabil also questioned the current standard of journalism in the country, lamenting that “the excellence that we used to have is all gone down. Instead of raising the bar higher, we’ve lowered it and lowered it and every time we lower it lower and lower and lower and lower and we have huge problems”.
-pulse.com.gh
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