<<Print>>

Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper has stated matter of factly that peacefmonline.com was unfair to the Communications Director at the Presidency, Koku Anyidoho, for a news item purported to have been deduced from an exclusive interview with him (Koku) regarding the �token� outhouse for the security detail at President Mills� private residence. The Searchlight newspaper, on Monday August 15th, published on its front-page with a screaming headline; �Manifesting The Better Ghana�Mills Grabs Brand New Mansion! The publication was hotly contested by the presidency, albeit with some contradictions and inconsistencies. Director of Communications at the Presidency, Koku Anyidoho, told Adom FM on Monday, August 15th that the out-house (a place of convenience for the president's security guards and not a mansion), was a �token� from the owners of Regimanuel Gray Estates Ltd, a private estate developer. But on Tuesday, after leading a team of journalists from the Presidential Press Corps to tour the facility which turned out to be a structure at the foundation level with contractors still pouring concrete on the floor, he (Koku) clarified that Regimanuel Gray decided to put up the outhouse which comprises �toilets, bath houses and a bedroom or two' after the President first brought up the idea. He denied granting PeaceFM News an exclusive interview; an inadvertent error which the station has acknowledged and duly apologized for. But perhaps, not satisfied with the apology, Koku Anyidoho threatened to drag peacefmonline.com and some other media houses to court. Speaking to the issue as a panelist on Radio Gold�s Alhaji and Alhaji programme, Kwesi Pratt Jnr. posited that: �I think it is important for all of us to admit that peacefmonline was absolutely unfair to Mr. Koku Anyidoho. In the first instance peacefmonline claimed that the story they were putting out was as a result of an exclusive interview granted to them by Koku Anyidoho and it turns out that Koku Anyidoho had never spoken to PeaceFM. So the element of unfairness is huge and indeed it is unpardonable in our profession. You can make mistakes with quotations and so on but to attribute something which has never happened to any person is the height of unethical behaviour and it is important to take note of this�,� he said. In the said publication, peacefmonline.com attached an image of a mansion but stated categorically; �This is not the building in question, but one of the several estate houses being constructed by Regimanuel Grey Estate Limited,� but Kwesi Pratt Jnr insists that the footnote underneath the picture does not create any effect. To him, it still shows people how the supposed mansion looks like. �Now if you look under (neath) the photograph, there is a caption in small print which says that this is not the mansion the president has acquired and creates the impression that it is one of similar mansions, huge problem. In the first place there is no mansion so you cannot publish a photograph of something that looks like the mansion the president has acquired. The small print under the photograph does not in any way exonerate those who published the photograph�the question to ask is what was the motive of publishing those photographs? The obvious motive for publishing those photographs is to show people what the mansion may look like and I think this is most unfair�this is a horrendous abuse, really horrendous abuse, unjustifiable, unsupportable and unethical in the extreme�I feel ashamed that this happened�� he added. The outspoken journalist however commended Kwami Sefa Kayi and for that matter Peace FM for immediately rendering an apology to Koku Anyidoho when they realized the error. �It is important also to recognize that in spite of this development, Peace FM and indeed their leading presenter, Kwami Sefa Kayi, have apologized to Koku Anyidoho�that is much different from other media which are still insisting that the story they have put out is true. So in spite of all the errors that Peace FM made, in spite of all the unethical publications and so on, at least they have had the modesty to admit that they were wrong, they have done the proper thing by apologizing and I think that that needs to be recognized,� he said.