Media Pluralism

Women’s participation and representation in media as well as their access to it have consistently been an issue of discussion and debate in Ghana. While media experts keep pointing at the lack of females both in media ownership and media management, the Media Ownership Monitor now provides data to back their claims...

The Media Ownership Monitor did a reality check and evaluated if and how media ownership information is available for the general public, as well as how detailed and credible it is. Different types of inconsistencies complicated the research and showed that Ghana faces a number of issues regarding media ownership transparency...

Out of all monitored media outlets, a third have political links or are directly state-owned. Political affiliations of owners are herein understood when a media outlet or company belongs to a party, a partisan group, a party leader or a clearly partisan person. Political activities of family members or other close personal contacts are also declared...

Like in many countries worldwide, media ownership in Ghana began with the state, that remains to be a leading player in the market until this day. However other than the European model of public service media, in Ghana the budgets of state-owned media are allocated directly by the Ministry of Information...

Maximum concentration was found among the printed press, where the top four media companies together reach 95.9% of the readership. Three out of four readers prefer a state-run newspaper. Private companies on the other hand dominate the broadcasting sector, where s high concentration exists in the TV segment...

No provisions regulate the media environment to prevent concentration of ownership and monopolies. Thus, limitless controlling influence by those who can afford to establish mass media outlets is encouraged. Two regulatory bodies exist, but fail to effectively impose compliance in the mass media market...