Accra, Ghana//-Most Ghanaians say the media should play an active role in reporting on government mistakes and corruption, the latest Afrobarometer survey shows. But at the same time, fewer citizens see the media as free and trustworthy.
While a majority of Ghanaians believe their country’s media is free to operate without government interference, the proportion who think otherwise has grown significantly in recent years. And even as traditional media maintain moderate levels of public trust, confidence in social media as a source of news has dropped sharply since 2022.
Survey findings also reveal that only a minority of citizens think that threats and attacks against journalists have increased in the past two years.
Key findings
- Two-thirds (67%) of respondents see Ghana’s media as “somewhat” or “completely” free, while 32% say it is “not very free” or “not at all” free, up from 19% in 2019 (Figure 1).
- More than eight out of 10 Ghanaians (82%) say the media should “constantly investigate and report on government mistakes and corruption” (Figure 2).
- Four in 10 respondents say they trust news from privately owned media outlets (41%) and state-owned media outlets (41%) “somewhat” or “a lot,” reflecting declines of 7 and 3 percentage points, respectively, compared to 2022 (Figure 3).
- Only 26% say they trust news from social media, a 12-percentage-point drop (Figure 3).
- Fewer than one-third of citizens see an increase in threats and physical attacks on the media by political party supporters (32%), ordinary citizens (28%), and security agencies (26%) in the past two years (Figure 4).
Afrobarometer surveys
Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network that provides reliable data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life. Nine survey rounds in up to 42 countries have been completed since 1999. Round 10 surveys were launched in January 2024. Afrobarometer’s national partners conduct face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice.
The Afrobarometer team in Ghana, led by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development, interviewed a nationally representative sample of 2,400 adult Ghanaians in August 2024. 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, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2022.
