A majority of Ghanaians say the country’s media is “somewhat free” or “completely free” of government censorship and interference, the most recent Afrobarometer survey shows.
Comparing preliminary 2019 data from eight African countries, Ghana records the second highest perceived supply of media freedom.
Key findings
Seven in 10 Ghanaians (72%) say the media is “somewhat free” or “completely free” to report or comment on news without government censorship or interference. Only two in 10 (19%) think the media is “not very free” or “not at all free” to do so, the second-lowest perception of media censorship or interference among eight countries surveyed in 2019.
The seven other African countries where the survey was also conducted include Namibia, Kenya, Botswana, Malawi, guinea, Uganda and Cote d’Ivoire. In Namibia, 80% of the respondents said the media is somewhat free or completely free with only 13% who were of the opinion that the media is not free.
72% of the respondents in Kenya said, the media was somewhat free with 26% who believed the media is not free from government interference. The Kenyan situation is not too different from what Botswana. 71% of the respondents believed the media is somewhat free while 25% of the respondents thought otherwise.
In Cote d’Ivoire, 45% of the respondent said the media was free and 53% of the respondent said the media was not free from government interference and censorship.
Afrobarometer is a pan-African, nonpartisan survey research network that provides reliable data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life. Seven rounds of surveys were completed in up to 38 countries between 1999 and 2018. Round 8 surveys in 2019/2020 are planned in at least 35 countries. Afrobarometer conducts face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice with nationally representative samples.
The Afrobarometer team in Ghana, led by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), interviewed 2,400 adult Ghanaians between 16 September and 3 October 2019. A sample of this size yields country-level results with a margin of error of +/-2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Previous surveys were conducted in Ghana in 1999, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2017.