He was speaking at a forum held in Kumasi for journalists by the Commission in with support from the European Union (EU). It provided the platform to present a monitoring report on the media’s coverage of the coming general election in the Ashanti Region within the last three months.   The monitoring involved content analysis of 10 radio stations operating in the Kumasi metropolis.

The report showed that males contesting the December 07 election enjoyed 81 per cent access to the electronic media, with their female counterparts, getting seven per cent and the other groups sharing between them 12 per cent. Mr. Sarpong criticized what he said was the marginalization of women, children, the physically challenged and the poor in public discourse in the media, labeling it as “primitive and completely unacceptable”.

He reminded journalists that they had a responsibility to all the people irrespective of their socio-economic, physical or political status. The primary goal of the media, he indicated, was to champion the cause of all people especially, the voiceless in society and “not those who are more powerful and influential”.  Mr. Sarpong pointed out that society could not make any meaningful progress when a significant proportion of its citizens was silenced, adding that, every opinion mattered in a democracy and it was time “the voiceless is given voice”.