Propaganda: The Media and Ghana’s 2020 Presidential Election Petition

Abstract

This article examines the extent to which media bias is featured in the reportage of Ghana’s 2020 Presidential Election Petition. The Presidential Election Petition was filed by the main candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama who challenged the declaration by the Electoral Commission (EC) that President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo of the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) won the election. Using a purposive sampling approach focusing on the print media, this paper assesses how three local newspapers-the NDC aligned WhatsApp news online, the NPP aligned Daily Statesman online and State-sponsored Daily Graphic online covered the event and the extent to which media bias played in the coverage of the election petition. The study found that propaganda and media bias featured prominently in the coverage of the election petition and constituted a substantial risk of undermining press freedom and the country’s growing democracy. The study recommends, amongst others, training for journalists on how to detect bias and propaganda statements from story actors to obviate the potential of publishing propaganda-driven statements that could threaten the peace and stability of the country.