Agnes Ansah
Accra, Oct.9, GNA – Dr Adam Bona, a Security Analyst, says media houses in Ghana are easily attacked due to porous security at their premises.
“Gaining entry to most media houses is very easy and that’s why they are easily attacked. It is free for all. They don’t have a policy that governs who can have access to a studio and at what point a person should get into a studio invited or uninvited,” he said in a phone interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Monday.
Dr Bona was sharing his thoughts on the invasion and attacks on United Television (UTV) by alleged sympathisers of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and similar attacks in the past.
Speaking on the issue, Dr Bona said some public institutions could be accessible to the public for the purposes of transacting business, but sensitive areas such as studios should be out of bounds to even some staff of a media house.
He, therefore, encouraged media houses to engage professional security personnel at their premises to forestall such occurrences.
“Most of the security personnel I have met at some media houses are not professionals. They cannot prevent crimes or protect medias workers.
“They are mostly not trained. You go to a media house and the security men and women are sitting down. They will not ask you a question, they will not say anything to you, they are on their phones, they are not properly dressed, and they do not know what they are doing,” Dr Bona observed.
He said there should be a policy stating who could have access to the various departments in a media house and at what point.
The policy should include how long a panelist could hang out at a media house when he or she was done.
Dr Bona said media houses should also have police contact information readily available so that any staff could reach the police in case of any attack.
On Saturday, October 7, some men believed to be affiliated to the NPP stormed the premises of UTV, an Accra based television station, and temporarily interrupted a live show.
The attackers, 16, were arrested and kept in police custody to assist investigations.
Meanwhile, The Ministry of Information, the Ghana Journalists Association, the Private Newspapers Association of Ghana, the National Media Commission, the National Democratic Congress, the New Patriotic Party and Mr Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, an Independent Presidential Aspirant, have condemned the act.
GNA