Raymond Archer's Rejoinder

There is no argument about the journalistic stature of Mr. Raymond Archer. Unequivocally, he has acquitted himself so creditably that he deserves the respect of everyone. This respect we shall accord him come what may but, we shall also do well to expose self-aggrandizing motives. We say this with regards to a recent rejoinder submitted by the esteemed journalist, Mr. Raymond Archer, in respect to an earlier contribution by one Mr. Prince Prah (see Raymond Archer rejoinder, of>www.ghanaweb.com of 04/09/2009).

In the said rejoinder, Mr. Raymond Archer talks extensively about Mr. Prah's purported loathing towards him and his newspaper and some baseless claims of attack on his person. Regarding the so-called personal attacks, we would leave it to the good people of Ghana and discerning readers to judge for themselves. Anybody who follows events in Ghana and reads the tabloids from an unprejudiced perspective will only acquiesce with Mr. Prah. That gentleman only presented factual information on some of the goings-on in Ghana. The Enquirer hurriedly published a story which sought to portray Mr. Ace Ankomah as an impostor without crosschecking its facts. This is what Mr. Prah talked about and he gave a few examples regarding Mr. Raymond Archer’s journalism. We believe all that Mr. Raymond Archer had to do was to defend himself against the allegations.

What we find quite ridiculous is Mr. Archer’s express intention of using the ghanaweb.com medium to eulogize himself and quite pompously, to blow his own horn unlike Kwaku Sakyi-Addo who allows Larry King to blow it for him. We find that self-aggrandizement a bit unfortunate as the prestigious journalist used the medium to tell us all that he has achieved in order to promote himself. We will briefly expatiate on the disingenuous effort of Mr. Raymond Archer to contemptuously brush Mr. Prah and almost everyone he does not fancy aside and show us how big he has become in the Ghanaian journalism circles.

We shall end up writing volumes of things were we to contend ourselves with exposing the entire flaw in the rejoinder. We would like Mr. Archer to calmly accept his blunder and learn to correct it. We should also put on record that this is not very straightforward especially when you have built an enviable reputation of being the Best Investigative Journalist in Ghana, the first African journalist to win the prestigious (Mr. Archer's adjective) Global Gold Medal for Excellence in journalism, the Natalie Prize for Africa and the Co-winner for the Best West African Journalist. We do not mean to say , dear reader, that Mr. Archer is egotistical but we feel he should have dealt with the issues raised by Mr. Prah rather than reiterating to us what we know already --namely all his credentials and laurels. As prolific a journalist as he is, he faulted himself for, most of the things he wrote had no bearing on the allegations raised by Mr. Prah. Mr. Archer could have done himself justice by dealing with the issues and sparing us another mention of his awards.

Mr. Archer, a supposedly believer in democracy, tries to suppress its most important tenet, to wit, freedom of speech. He finishes his rejoinder by admonishing ghanaweb.com against mischief makers, who will use the medium to tarnish the images of others through libelous articles. This—we feel-- is a disreputable suggestion. Some journalists are disgusting with very nauseous writings but we do not ask governments to suppress their newspapers. Therefore, we find it very uncanny on the part of Mr. Raymond Archer to talk about accreditation on ghanaweb.com and concern himself with the integrity of news content on the website. Well, maybe it appears the great man wants all of us to go to the School of Journalism or Communication before we can send our write-ups.

We are happy that the ghanaweb.com management is no poodle of anyone. We know that most of us are not accredited and Mr. Archer seems to suggest that our contributions should be binned. If he should succeed, ghanaweb.com, like the newspapers, will become a monopoly of the few elite journalists. Thank God ghanaweb.com will not take any such ill advice; it will not pursue the same gullibility of some journalists who are always ready to report news and tarnish the images of others with the speed of light but slack when they have to retract malicious stories. Mr. Archer may only be human; however, retracting nasty stories and maybe offering an apology to the person involved is also not superhuman!

Thomas Dickens.

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