Montie FM, the unapologetic pro government radio station is in the cross-hairs of the Ghana Supreme Court and some vested interests. It is not the least surprising that the abrasive radio station is being attacked from all angles by its detractors.
Created to counter the incessant and virulent anti-Mahama vitriol that has become the mainstay of certain radio stations in the country, Montie, by all accounts, has taken the fight to the enemy and invariably has stepped on some big toes. Its popular host, Mugabe, known for his hot political rhetoric and acerbic comments, is causing many in the opposition camp sleepless nights.
Montie’s sin was to inadvertently provide a media platform from which threats were made on the lives of the judges of the Supreme Court by two NDC diehards. There was a national uproar over the threats with the opposition milking the issue for all it was worth.
Subsequently, the BNI interrogated Alistair Nelson and Godwin Ako Gunn, the two NDC loud mouths and determined that their utterances were nothing more than empty bravado. Meanwhile, management and the owner of the station have been summoned to appear before the Supreme Court on July 12th.
The Supreme Court Judges are seething with anger and understandably so; of late they have come under stinging criticisms for their perceived interference in the affairs of the Electoral Commission. It is no wonder therefore that they did not take the threats lightly. It remains to be seen if the judges will bring the law down heavily on the station and the two NDC stalwarts. But I have my doubts.
I am still scratching my head to grasp the rationale behind the unrestrained utterances and threats emanating as they were from Alistair and Gunn. Who put them to this task? Did they engage in this hyperbole on their own volition, ostensibly to please party elders? We will never know.
But it is safe to assume that our coarse political culture has created a toxic environment in which you can say anything and get away with it. So, Alistair and Gunn whose action that day can best be described as political posturing of the highest order, are doing exactly what others on the opposite side of the aisle are doing. Nothing new here.
Deplorable as Alistair and Gunn’s utterances are, it is erroneous and completely out of place to point the finger at the management of Montie radio. Some have suggested that management provided a medium for the two to threaten the judges and should have reeled them in, or better still, it should not have extended an invitation to the pair knowing full well their history of provocative and incendiary statements.
I beg to differ. Alistair’s and Gunn’s outbursts were spontaneous and off the cuff. They did not think through their statements before blurting them out. Management was thus thrown into an untenable position. It
could not have conceivably stopped the two men midway through their tirade. In situations such as that which occurred on Montie radio, it is nearly impossible to control human impulses.
Let us not gloss over the fact that we are not in a controlled media environment where everything is strictly regulated and everything scripted. Guests who appear on radio and television are allowed a free hand to express their opinions no matter how objectionable. And that is one of the hallmarks of democracy.
Twenty years ago, when the government decided to liberalize the Ghanaian media by opening the airwaves to the private sector it unknowingly pried open the door to voices that would eventually make authorities squirm. Radio has led the way in the partisan denunciations of those in power. And radio would remain the medium through which party foot soldiers will continue to duel it out and make outrageous statements. All said, let us snap out of our daze and accept this harsh reality.
