Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye Ghanaian sports journalist and politician and the current Member of Parliament of the Odododiodio constituency in the Greater Accra Region have described Akan news reading in Ghana as “horrible”.
According to him, after working on a Radio and Television station for 25 years, he has observed that Akan newsreaders in Ghana now do not tell the story, but rather tell their own story and most exaggerate.
In an interview with Accra based Citi TV, for the broadcaster, who worked
From 1990 to 2004 at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation where he became the Deputy Head of Sports and between 2005 and 2008, became the Head of Sports at Network Broadcasting Limited said he does not listen to Akan news because of how it is being presented in Ghana.
The former Minister of Youth and Sports and as Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry in the John Dramani Mahama’s government lauded BBC and CNN for maintaining their standard for some years.
Radio has enhanced pluralism through the use of a multiplicity of languages and these include Ga, Hausa, Twi, Dagbani, Nzema, and Fanti. Radio stations also facilitate diverse viewpoints being made, and, unlike other media – such as print and television – is able both rural and urban listeners are reached.
In Ghana now, there are over 400 Community based and commercial radio stations operating but 90% broadcast their news and other programs in the Akan Language.
According to the National Communications Authority, in 2018 Ghana had: 31 public radio stations; five foreign radio stations; 71 community radio stations; 22 campus radio stations, and 358 commercial radio stations.
A 2018 report by Afrobarometer showed that 56% of those interviewed in the survey listened to the radio, 42% watched television, 13% had access to the internet, and 15% to social media.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Kofi Atakora
