CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
This chapter gives the background of the study by providing a historical perspective of The Catholic Standard. It is be followed by the problem statement of the research. The research was problematized in order to seek solutions. The research objectives are stated followed by the research questions. The rationale and significance of the study are also highlighted to move the work to literature review.
Background of Study
Cage and Rueda (2014) state that the printing press in sub-Saharan Africa has its origin in the Protestant missionary activity in the 19th Century. The missionaries needed to print Bibles and other educational materials for the purposes of evangelisation. This was as a result of the declaration of Sola Scriptura by Martin Luther in 1517. The establishment of printing press in sub-Saharan Africa also brought about the opening of schools for formal education. Newspaper readership became a long term effect of printing press established in sub-Saharan Africa. It also enlightened the public about governance and served as a catalyst in the struggle for independent Africa. Proximity to printing press therefore stimulated newspaper readership and political participation.
Jones-Quartey (1974) catalogues some Christian missionary newspapers in the Gold Coast as:
Church Missionary Gleaner (1850-1856), Church Missionary Intelligencer (1859-1906), and
Church Missionary Review (1906-1927). Others were: Church Overseas (1928-1934), Gold Coast Methodist Times (1886? -1898), and Gold Coast Catholic Voice (1926-1927?). Some other Christian missionary newspapers in Ghana acknowledged by Gadzekpo (2007) were: The
Christian Messenger and Examiner (1859), and Christian Messenger (1883). The Presbyterian in 1985, the Watchman in 1986, Gospel News in 2000, and The Vinefield (2011) were also registered as Christian newspapers. Just a few of these newspapers have survived up to date. Economic management became a big challenge to newspaper production in sub- Saharan Africa. Meanwhile, challenges from the political powers also affected the Ghanaian press in the late 1980s. Gadzekpo (2007: 96) underscores that the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) era (1981-1993) considered the private press as opponent.
The private press came under particular pressure, with some being attacked by angry supporters of the revolution, closed down and their journalists and editors jailed, or hounded into exile.
The history of The Catholic Standard is traced back to 1903 when the Society for African Missions‟ (SMA) priests started a printing press in Cape Coast with a paper named The Dux
(Isaac Fritz Andoh, personal communication, October 9, 2015). The Dux was a bi-weekly newspaper publishing catechetical, social and devotional information with Rev. Fr Piet Derickx, an SMA Priest as the founder. The Dux was transformed into The Standard in 1938 and still published by the Catholic Mission Press at Cape Coast. However, the paper was only registered as a weekly newspaper in 1940. In 1976, the Standard Newspapers and Magazines (SNAM) Limited took over the publication of The Standard under a new name, The Catholic Standard, and moved the printing press to Accra in 1977.
The Catholic Standard in the 1980s was one of the newspapers that were closed down. It was banned from 1985 to 1992 for alleged political interference during the military rule led by Jerry John Rawlings. The PNDC government banned The Catholic Standard on December 13, 1985.
A statement from the Ministry of Information banning the paper claimed that it was “writing in a manner that jeopardises the national interest and also in a manner that undermined the
people‟s confidence in themselves” (Isaac Fritz Andoh, personal communication, October 9, 2015). Mr Kofi Totobi Quakyi, the then Secretary of Information was concerned about Ghanaian journalists not being contributors to development but instead, being watchdogs (Rockson, K. 1990). It is against this backdrop that Thomas Jefferson (1757) was on point talking on government and newspapers.
The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
