National Peace Council concerned about arbitration of marital disputes in open media

The National Peace Council in the Ashanti Region has expressed concern over media houses openly mediating family disputes, stressing that this is against both tradition and the law.

This concern comes against a backdrop of a rapidly increasing demand for radio programmes that mimic matrimonial courts and in which the complaints of aggrieved parties are heard and discussed in a sensational manner.

These programs enjoy enormous audiences in the mass market of the Ashanti region, exert strict authority, interview litigants live without their prior consent, and impose arbitrary judgments.

The Executive Secretary of the Ashanti Regional Council, Rev. Badu Amoah, is concerned about these uncensored conflict resolution platforms, saying that the programs violate moral, legal and traditional rules that protect and preserve society.

In his speech on the Ultimate Breakfast Show, he stressed that marital problems should not be treated with intellectualism and sensationalism, but with a deep understanding of the situation of the disputing parties.

“As a consultant myself, I know that this is not the right way to solve problems, even in alternative dispute resolution,” Rev. Amoah claimed.

He stressed the shame that such radio and television programs inflict on innocent families and complained: “They only postpone communal conflicts because when there is a conflict between two people, two families are affected. The innocent children suffer.”

He stressed that it was a matter of tradition and law to handle such sensitive matters discreetly. Unlike radio and television programmes, such discussions were held in public view, without any mechanism to conceal the identity of the feuding families.

“In our tradition, we do not discuss family matters in public,” he warned.

Rev. Badu Amoah pointed out that all attempts to resolve the issue with media institutions, traditional authorities and the Ghana Bar Association had so far failed to produce any positive results.