Were their conscience sold?

By Charles Andoh

Coming out of the Executive Lecture Hall at The Ghana Institute of Journalism on that faithful day; Friday 30^th November, 2012 after my last examination paper to end the semester, some individuals clad in a particular political party’s paraphernalia approached me.  They were called friends of that political party in question’s Leader. According to them, students of GIJ were supposed to write their names for reasons they could not disclose to me at that moment.

As a student-journalist, I wanted to find out the significance of writing my name for a particular political leader and why it should be done at a period where Ghanaians were going to the polls.  Further interrogations revealed that the writing of names came with special packages such as T-shirts. Oh lalaaaaaa! You wouldn’t believe it but that was the case.

Indeed, such packages came with a price to pay.  Students were entreated to vote for this political party leader in question. Is this not the sale of conscience and dignity?

Selling the message of a particular political party to people like students to vote for that party may not be wrong.  But to go to the extreme end of distributing packages to no persons than student-journalists makes me wonder when GIJ became a school for partisan – politics? When did the mediator become a promoter of the ideologies of a particular political party? Hmm Ghana, “3b3y3 yie ni?”

Later findings revealed that the SRC of the Institute spearheaded this course by giving the opportunity to such a political party to come and campaign for votes. However, Sources say that the SRC served the other parties letters to attend the programme but they refused. That sounds disturbing but it happened.  Why did the other parties not attend? Big question. Had the SRC a fishy agenda in turning the Institute into a partisan – politics to ruin the dignity of mother GIJ? I stand for correction in this regard. 

No matter what the situation was, students could have stood on their grounds to defend their dignity and the name of GIJ. Maybe the Student Journalist has forgotten the Code of Ethics of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA). Article 3 (1) of the code of ethics underscores the fact that “Journalists should not accept bribe or any form of inducement to influence the performance of his/her professional duties.”

 

I think if a journalist engages in such an act, it is a slight on his or her professional integrity and a disgrace to journalism. “Charity they say begins at home.” so if you allow yourself as a student journalist to be influenced by a particular political party while in school, what then will become of you when you have completed school? Anyway, do you still want to ask whether their conscience were sold?

Email: Charlesandoh28@yahoo.com