calibre and capacity of public information officers in the different ministries who would be the key contacts should the bill be passed into law. As a result, it has been recommended that the Ministry of Information would first need some restructuring in order to address the existing shortcomings and be ready to give direction and professional support once the law has been passed and is being implemented. On its part, the media has also not been as forceful as expected in its advocacy for the passage of these bills. SCORES: Individual scores: 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2 Average score: 1.2 1.7 Civil society in general and media lobby groups actively advance the cause of media freedom. ANALYSIS: Civil society and media lobby groups have been doing a lot of lobbying to advance media freedom. Some examples: - - The Ghana Journalists’ Association and the Attorney General’s Department worked out modalities on how to report on the death of the Ya Na (traditional ruler) of Yendi because of its ethnic and political volatility. This was very innovative as far as media and government relations were concerned regarding issues considered sensitive to political stability and social integration and cohesion. Media advocacy played a decisive role in the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law. This was the first step taken by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government in 2001 after winning its first elections since the country returned to democratic governance in 1992. This action by the government was given different interpretations. While some analysts lauded it as a positive step, others thought it was a ‘deliberate political’ move to cow media houses and operations and to favour the government in their reportage. It is important to state that the Ghanaian media have come a long way and are not naïve in such things. In other words, even if the latter argument was valid, the government would have had a hard time achieving that goal. 5