Human Rights Abuse: A Content Analysis of the Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Times (2012)

Abstract

The study which is a comparative content analysis used quantitative content analysis of the Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Times from January to December in the year 2012 to assess the coverage of human rights abuse in Ghana. Human rights are widely considered to be those fundamental moral rights of a person that are necessary for a life with human dignity. States are expected to protect citizens by creating environments that allow law enforcement agencies to function effectively. The data collected were presented in tables. Out of the total of 2258 stories coded in the Daily Graphic, 2247 or 99.51 percent were non-human rights abuse stories while 11 or 0.49 percent were human rights abuse stories. In the Ghanaian Times out of the 1909 stories 1889 or 98.95 percent were non-human rights abuse stories while 20 or 1.05 percent were human rights abuse stories. For both papers, there was a total of 4167 stories out of which 4136 or 99.25 percent were non-hun1an rights abuse stories while 31 or 0.74 percent were human rights abuse stories. Some of the stories occurred in some regions than others. Civil rights abuse got the highest coverage with all stories being straight news. The greatest number of the stories were placed in the inside pages while many of them had no picture accompaniment. In most cases the reporter was the main speaker. The page usually allocated the stories was small, which is one-and a third (1/3) of the page size and below suggesting that the issue was not a priority for the newspapers. The study made many recommendations by suggesting that much page must be given to the human rights abuse stories. Also. the newspapers must report human rights abuse and promote human rights through editorials. comlnentaries, features and letters to the editor. Policy makers and human rights organizations mustt publish human rights issues in newspapers through editorials" features and commentaries to make the reader see human rights as an important issue so that the reader can give it more attention.