A video in which some radio and television stations are seen advertising a herbal product that has no medicinal property has gone viral on social media. The Fourth Estate, a media outlet, in its attempt to ascertain if these radio and television stations are complying with the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) order to seek clearance before advertising any herbal preparations, came out with a special concept.
The journalists mixed Malt, Coke and Fanta drinks and nicely packaged it as MACOFA Herbal Mixture. According to the journalists, the ‘herbal mixture’ can cure menstrual pains, infertility and sexual weakness. They then approached the radio and the television stations to advertise the products for them.
These media outlets, without verifying whether the product is wholesome for human consumption or not, accepted to advertise it. The journalists subsequently paid for the advertising cost and they started running the advert for them. Though these media stations knew they have not verified the product from the FDA, their presenters embellished the advertising message, just to convince the public to patronise it.
So far, the media houses ‘caught in the act’ have not issued any official statement on the issue. The Chronicle, therefore, presumes that what is circulating on social media is true.
As a media house, we are not gloating over what has happened to our colleagues who have considered monetary value ahead of public safety,  because  to err they say is human.
This notwithstanding, we think the radio and television stations involved have committed a serious blunder that must not be swept under the carpet. When the FDA wrote to all the media houses advising them to seek clarification or look out for officially approved letter from them (FDA) before advertising any herbal preparations, they knew what they were doing.
Public safety is very important if we are to survive as a state, but unfortunately, these so called herbalists were coming out with concoctions that had no medical value or property and yet selling them to the unsuspecting public.
The FDA, therefore, decided to strictly enforce the law by asking the herbalists to send their products to their laboratory for testing. They would only be allowed to sell the product if it meets medical standards.
The FDA did not end there, but went further to inform all media houses not to advertise products that have not been approved by them. We are, therefore, at loss as to why the radio and TV stations accepted MACOFA Herbal Mixture, which has no medical value and started advertising it without seeking clarification from the FDA.
In fact, if MACOFA Herbal Mixture contains poison, these media houses would have helped in killing many innocent Ghanaians, looking at the way they even embellished the advert. Â This is the reason why The Chronicle thinks they (media) have committed a serious blunder and should have come out by now to apologise to the public.
To the Forth Estate, we commend them for keeping their colleagues on their toes. This is what we call journalism, and we applaud them for showing interest in public safety, which has obviously been thrown to the dogs by their erring colleagues.
