The Management and staff of Zaa Radio in the northern regional capital of Tamale realized that attention has been drawn by our cherish listeners online in both within and outside Ghana to the effect that, the station was burnt down completely leaving many staff injured following the unfortunate clashes between sections of the Muslim Community which occurred on the 19th August 2012 in the Tamale metropolis.
Stories being reported in some media houses in the nation’s capital Accra on both Radio and online are false, inaccurate and speculative pieces by some media practitioners whose intentions about the northern region is to scare investors away.
We want to stress that, “not even a mosquito in Zaa was hurt, our equipment are well intact and are performing the normal activities as expected’’.
Our readers and listeners can only guess what those media houses are up to, especially with regards to issues from the northern region. We appreciate the concerns of our numerous listeners and readers across the globe.
It is an established fact that, on that faithful day, there was a confrontation between some sects of the Muslim community in the Islamic dominated region in Ghana, but a total fabrication for anybody in the inky fraternity to report without verifying their source of information from the staff of Zaa Radio to ascertain the authenticity or order wise of their information all in the name of “scope’’ or ’’first to air incidents’’ without recourse to journalistic ethics.
Among the stations in Accra that reported the incident with some level of decorum was Joy FM which captioned the incident on its 19th August News; “Two Muslim sects clash over some teachings in Qur'an” .
Joy Fm Northern Regional Correspondent Clement Boateng after visiting Zaa reported that, members of the rival sects are also said to have attacked Zaa FM, another radio station in Tamale. He said “ I came to the Zaa and met one Seidu Kayaba (Head of Programmes) who briefed him about the situation and conducted him round and I found no distractions through out my rounds.
In his own words “I came there to access the security situation and whether there were some level of destructions or not’’. Another journalist the staff spotted at the time of the perceived attack and vandalism on Zaa was the Northern regional Correspondent of Metro TV Isaac Noyan.
In our estimation, the rest reported based on hear-say which is uncharacteristic of professional journalists. When our online listeners drew our attention to the stories they read on some websites like the Ghana web which published the story from the XYZ, an Accra based radio station.
XYZ on august 20th 2012, posted on their website headlined“ Two Radio Stations Destroyed As Muslim sects clash’’.
The story, read some residents in Tamale metropolis in the northern region have sustained various degrees of injury following clashes at the North Star Radio.
The most astonishing part was that the station (XYZ) has just joined the electronic media industry less than a year and only God knows in the years ahead information they will be churning out to the Ghanaian public and the global world.
For us in Zaa Radio, we are guided by the ethics in journalism and our mission and vision to serve the rural communities with unbiased, accurate, balanced and comprehensive information per the first article of the Ghana Journalist Association Code of Ethics(people’s to true information). This reporter was there at the time of the incident, I therefore report that nobody either outside or within the premises of the station (Zaa Radio) was hurt.
The XYZ second to last statement of the story said:’’ Equipment at another radio station, Zaa Fm, were destroyed in a reprisal attack in the area’’.
This statement we believed put a lot of stress, panic and fear on our discerning listeners.
On behalf of management and my own behalf, we are healthy and as fit as a fiddle. ]]>
