Achieving Media Independence through Legal and Regulatory Measures: A Formality or Reality?

Abstract

Ghana’s Fourth republican constitutional provisions on the independence of the media and of expression were subjected to a qualitative assessment on the question: has it lived up to expectation? The study showed that the constitution marked a takeoff point for media liberalisation that led to increased private ownership participation and broke the “culture of silence” to some appreciable extent within the public sphere. Some shortfalls were identified and these were: the media lacks right to information, some archaic laws still exist in the statute books and huge court fines cripple media outlets.