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This week, last week and the week before have seen the NPP grabbing the headlines for all the horrible reasons.
The media has been dissecting the stories of a party filled with egos, busily hitting the self-destruct buttons and plotting a perpetual stay in opposition.
From the machete-wielding invisible force having a go at each other at the party headquarters to the media war by the leadership. The Multimedia group has covered every angle of the story with the same zeal and passion of a child at play.
From the plots to scuttle the Upper East meeting organised by Afoko and Agyepong; the fights that ensued to the barbaric acid attack which claimed the life of the Upper East chair. The media has been at the centre of it all.
From the calls of resignation by Regional chairmen to Afoko and Agyepong, to allegations of coup at the party HQ, the media, Multimedia have covered.
When the political actors in the NPP were busy shooting their disaster movies, the media writers, at Myjoyonline.com, Adomonline.com, the broadcasters at Joy FM, Adom FM, Asempa FM, Luv FM, Multi TV were busy disseminating the stories.
The webpages of the two websites were and are splashed with stories of the NPP in crisis. The airwaves of all the Multimedia networks bled,are still bleeding with the bleeding stories of the NPP.
Many are the angles that were taken, will be taken; many are the issues that are and will be explored daily. The public is entitled to know what is going on in the NPP; they have the right to know what is going on in the largest opposition party, the party touted as the government in waiting. It is the responsibility of the Multimedia group to give that information. We did not compromise on that; We will not. We delivered and will deliver to the best of our ability.
Admittedly in the coverage of the NPP crisis, Multimedia may not have gotten everything right.
In fact there was even a hoax of a resignation letter which Multimedia and all other media houses fell to. We made a quick u-turn when it came to light that we got it wrong.
In the midst of this coverage by the Multimedia group, Ghana's power paralysis better known as dumsor has not abated; the cedis' jumbo jet fall has not subsided. The hasty increases in prices of petroleum products and the attendant effect on the masses of the people have not suddenly vanished.
In fact the outbreak of the deadly bird flu in Ghana did not receive a quarter of the coverage given to the NPP's political suicide mission.
Multimedia was just as active as the NPP footsoldiers, MPs, party leadership, Council of Elders and together we wrote, will write, depending on how things pan out, the great sad story of this political party for posterity to read.
Now if Multimedia can devote its airtime, pages on websites to happenings in an opposition party, largely because the issues were news worthy, one cannot, should not expect anything less from the Multimedia group when it is covering issues about the government in power.
In fact for a government in power the stakes are even higher for the media because the government has the power to act and perform; It has our taxes to expend and a country to develop.
The media, Multimedia is empowered by the constitution to keep the government in check, act as watch dogs to ensure that we get value for money from our government officials.
So if an NPA boss says Ghanaians are hypocrites for seeking a reduction in petroleum prices, Multimedia has to report. If a deputy minister says she is surprised like all Ghanaians that petroleum prices have been increased, Multimedia has to report. If there is a three-year old dumsor canker which is killing Ghanaians, killing businesses, Multimedia has to report. If there is a cedi falling faster than the dropping of coin onto the ground, Multimedia has to report. If there is GYEEDA, SUBAH SADA, corruption scandals, Multimedia has to report. If the government commissions a fiber optic backbone, Multimedia has to report. Multimedia has to report the good, the bad and the ugly, anything just to satisfy the insatiable demand of the public for information.
It is sad to say sometimes that negative stories sell better. What bleeds leads, that is what every first-year journalism student is told.
So here at Multimedia we do our job! It doesn't matter who is in government or in opposition. We do our job. We will not get it right all the time. We will strive to but we will do our job. We did it when the NDC was in power under Jerry Rawlings; we did it when the NPP was in power under JA Kufuor; we did it when the NDC returned to power under the late John Mills and will do it under our current president John Mahama.
Let it not be said anywhere that we are anti-government just because we give prominence to stories considered negative and detract from the agenda of those who want to lull all of us into false sense great successes and extraordinary achievement. Once those stories are not manufactured, fabricated we are duty-bound to tell them just as they are.
Our country expects no less from us. Our call as journalists expects no less from us. Right thinking Ghanaians expect no less from us. Our conscience expect no less from us.
We have our political biases but once we sit behind our computers, our microphones we are guided by the principles of the profession.
We can be criticised, ridiculed on facebook if and when we get it wrong but please don't seek to undermine a media empire that took years of sweat, hardwork and sacrifice to build. It is unconscionable.
Source: Ghana|Myjoyonline.com| Nathan Gadugah | nathan.gadugah@myjoyonline.com