When the Media Becomes Part of the Story

A recent Al Jazeera report looks closely at how Ghanaian media has covered the debate around sexual orientation and the anti-LGBTQ bill. What emerges is uncomfortable but important: the media is not only reporting the story. In many cases, it has helped shape the atmosphere around it.

When coverage repeatedly frames certain citizens as a threat, or gives wide space to voices that call for their exclusion, it does more than inform the public. It influences how ordinary people see their neighbours, their colleagues, and even members of their own families.

Media has power. It can calm fear or it can feed it. It can encourage careful thought or it can reward the loudest condemnation.

In a country where many already feel the weight of stigma, the way stories are told matters. Language that reduces people to symbols of moral danger makes it easier for society to treat them as less than human.

Ghana needs journalists and platforms that ask harder questions — not only about culture and values, but about fairness, accuracy, and the real human cost of the current climate.

We can disagree strongly about private lives.  
We cannot afford a media culture that turns disagreement into permission for harm.

Different people.  
One community.  
One Ghana.