Ghanaians on Twitter have condemned a report by American television network Cable News Network (CNN) on the recently held elections, claiming Ghanaians were struggling to obtain food and services.
The article was first published on CNN website on Saturday and written by CNN reporters in Lagos and Atlanta with the headline – Ghana election: Incumbent concedes to Nana Akufo-Addo.
The main area of contention in the article, among others, was a paragraph that said Ghanaians (which was misspelled) were struggling to obtain food and services.
“Oil reserves were discovered off the coast of Ghana in 2007, but Ghanians (sic) struggle to obtain food and day-to-day services. Rolling blackouts are common and citizens often stand in long line to obtain products,” it said.
A cross section of Ghanaians including media personalities on Sunday morning began tweeting their displeasure with a screenshot of the paragraph in question and hashtag #CNNGetItRight.
A Ghanaian sports journalist, Gary Al-Smith, started the hashtag which is now the top trend in the West African country as hundreds of Ghanaians condemn the misrepresentation.
“Also, @CNN, Ghana and Venezuela are not twins. In fact, Ghana are North Korea are not even close. Lazy armchair reporting. #CNNGetItRight,” Al-Smith tweeted after he advised: “At least, spellchecker on the PC of whoever wrote this should have pointed out the word ‘Ghanaians’ and NOT ‘Ghanians’. #CNNGetItRight.”
The original article was later updated at 1255 GMT with the correct spelling of Ghanaians.
The entire paragraph was deleted at 1501 GMT with an Editor’s Note acknowledging the mistakes.
“An earlier version of this article incorrectly described the status of the retail economy in Ghana. Stores are generally well stocked, and food shortages are rare. The earlier version also erroneously said Nana Akufo-Addo ran for president in 1998. Ghana did not have presidential elections in 1998,” the note stated.
This article was first published by Ismail Akwei on africanews.com.
Ismail Akwei 