Journalists With Benefits

Last week, I came to a press briefing inside the Ministry of Information to get a feel of upcoming 2009 world tourism day celebrations, to be hosted by Ghana government this year. The Madam minister of tourism and several officers from the Ministry and subsidiary Ghana Tourist Board also presented.

The talks were long and eventless, the following Q&A was better. Several local journalists questioned a low or non-existent public awareness for the event inside the country, a female had to excuse herself after a emotional questioning session, the minister and her deputies recognized the problem but instisted that the efforts to address it were already put out.

After a nearly two hour monologue and heating Q&A, I was ready to head out of door but noticed a crowd jamming nearing the exit. In the center is a Minstry employee holding dozens of white envelops, and around him are journalsits eagerly looked at him. The staff then called names and gave out the envelopes.

That made me wondering what's going on. I stopped one and asked, and He looked at me like I was from outer space. "It is compensation for covering the event".

"what?! you mean, the money to pay every one to get there today?"
"Yes."

I later found out that the amount is around Ghana 10 cedis ($8), which is sufficent to get two meals and a tax fare in capital Accra. One senior reporter from Ghana New Agency told me some private companies pay even more, sometime as much as 100-300, and in a busy day, journalists usually go to three to four such "functions", and the money is called "soli", as a solidarity.

I had to admit that I was in shock for a while, I read some articles explaining journalists get paid very little here. For a freelancer, a most profitable newspaper pays 10 cedis per article, barely enough to cover the cost. Even worse, some publications simply don't pay at all.

Does the fact that journalists work for the benefits reflect the less transparency and higer cost of doing business?