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A satirical talk show host with Radio Gold, ‘Corporal Babanawo’, has cautioned President John Dramani Mahama to be wary of the hostile attitude of a section of the Ghanaian media, indicating “they will not appreciate anything positive about his National Democratic Congress led government.”

Short of mentioning names of the media house(s) involved, a frustrated and pained Corporal Babanawo fumed at what he described as the Mahama government over-pampering of those hostile media houses to the abandonment and lack of respect for media organizations sympathetic to the administration.

He made these observations, Tuesday, on his widely listened to program, “Good Morning-Mr President”, which is part of Radio Gold’s morning show program, Gold Power Drive.

Corporal Babanawo’s effusion comes on the heels of recent false and alarming reportage by myjoyonline.com, a subsidiary of Multimedia, that Ghana lost its maritime dispute with Cote d’Ivoire in the ongoing boundary arbitration at the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany.

The tribunal last Saturday, April 25, 2015, gave Ghana the nod to continue oil production activities at a disputed maritime boundary area between it and Cote d’Ivoire.

It, however, ordered Ghana not to start any new offshore drilling for oil in the disputed waters until the substantive matter is resolved.
These were contained in a unanimous decision by the tribunal, following Cote d’Ivoire’s plea for the suspension of all activities on the disputed maritime boundary until the final determination of their disagreement over the boundary.

Few minutes after the ruling, myjoyonline.com, in what is becoming their stock in trade of twisting and putting spin on issues concerning the Mahama government, reported that the tribunal had ruled against Ghana.

It reported that “the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea has granted an application for an injunction brought against Ghana by neighbours, Ivory Coast in the maritime boundary dispute between the two countries”.

The story, titled “Ghana loses injunction case in maritime dispute”, added that “the Tribunal says Ghana must stop drilling oil in the disputed region until the substantive dispute is resolved.
However, when Ghanaians and other media houses raise alarm about the false reportage, myjoyonline.com later issued a halfhearted apology for the false story.

“It has come to our notice that an earlier story headlined, “Ghana loses injunction case in maritime dispute,” published on Sunday afternoon was not entirely accurate. The story missed some of the nuanced points contained in the ruling by the International Tribunal on the maritime dispute between Ghana and Ivory Coast which is being adjudicated on by the Tribunal.

Like Reuters, Yahoo.com and other major international online portals whose initial reports on the ruling were inaccurate, Myjoyonline.com inadvertently misconstrued one of the reliefs granted by the Tribunal to the Ivorians. We have since taken steps to amend the story with a new headline: Maritime dispute: International Tribunal gives compromised ruling to Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire. We, therefore, wish to apologise for the error and any embarrassment the story may have caused,” the apology stated.

Myjoyonline.com and their mother station, Joy FM and other NPP tainted media outlets have in recent times developed the appetite for twisting and putting spin on government communications and comments by government officials.

This deliberate attempt to distort facts, this paper has gathered, feeds into the grand scheme of some media allies to the opposition NPP, to cause disaffection for the NDC government.

However, Corporal Babanawo, who wasn’t enthused with the apology, said “our elders say no matter how nice the cock dances, it will never please the hawk. Mr President, John Dramani Mahama, no matter the good things you will do, it will never please these opposition media houses and their masters.”