Contact details
- Name:
- Mr Richard Dwomoh
- Qualifications:
- M.Phil Peace and Conflict Studies; LL.M International Law; M.A. Political Science.
- Position:
- Ph.D Candidate (Human Rights)
- Institute:
- Institute of Commonwealth Studies
- Location:
- Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London, Senate House Malet Street London WC1E 7HU
- Email address:
- richard.dwomoh@postgrad.sas.ac.uk
- Studies:
- Student
- Publication Details
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Related publications/articles:
Date Details 01-Apr-2023 A World without the Death Penalty: Is it within Reach? Papers
01-Jul-2021 Opportunities for Human Rights Influence within Norwegian Engagements Abroad Papers
04-Nov-2020 China's Global Activism on the Right to Development Articles
02-Mar-2015 The International Community and the Responsibility to Protect: Explaining the Use of Force in Libya but not in Syria Monographs
03-May-2010 The UN Security Council and Small Arms Proliferation: Legislating the Illegal Trade in Arms Monographs
- Research Projects & Supervisions
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- PhD Topic:
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China's Media Influence on Press Freedom in Africa: An Examination of Agency in the Ghanaian Context
China has not only surpassed the USA and Europe to become the dominant economic actor in Africa, but it has in the last decade also increased its role in shaping the normative spheres in Africa. As part of attempts to contest the discursive power of the West and reshape its international image, Beijing is complementing the efforts of its material media emissaries in Africa with an ideational media training component in China. This approach involves near-all-expenses paid-for trainings on Chinese models of governance, development, information control, and media for African journalists and politicians. The knowledge diffusion and skills transfer, meanwhile, are taking place in the context of recent studies suggesting that the notion of a uniform African acquiescence to Chinese interests with little or no African agency is misleading. To this end, the role of ‘African agency’ in bringing China’s media influence on press freedom in Africa has been hypothesized at both the journalistic and systemic levels.
Ghana, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the top recipient African countries of these Chinese professionalization media trainings. Having previously earned a fine reputation within the comity of nations as a beacon of democracy and a champion for press freedom in Africa, Ghana has witnessed a precipitous decline in the enjoyment of press freedom in the last decade. This is largely due to unprecedented attacks on independent journalists and media houses by state security apparatus, state appointees, and operatives of political parties. As a result, Ghana has since 2016 declined from been a ‘Full Democracy’ to a ‘Flawed Democracy’ on the Democracy Index and dropped from 30th to 62nd position on the World Press Freedom Index in the last three years. Questions are thus ripe over whether the worsening fortunes of press freedom could be an indication that the Ghanaian participants are practicing aspects of Chinese authoritarian media norms and practices in Ghana.
Meanwhile, the China-Africa-Ghana media scholarship has largely focused on the impact of China’s state-led media expansion into Africa on press freedom in Africa, with barely any focus on the impact of China’s state-led media trainings on press freedom. This research project contributes significant knowledge to the gaping impact-nexus gap in the extant literature on China's ideational media influence by addressing the research question: Do China’s media trainings for Ghanaian politicians and journalists undermine press freedom in Ghana through Ghanaian agency?
- Supervisor:
- Dr Corinne Lennox
- Research interests:
- Civil Rights, Globalization & Development, Human rights, International Law, International Relations, Law, Philosophy, Political Institutions, Politics, Social Sciences
- Regions:
- Africa
- Relevant Events
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Related events:
Date Details 16-Jun-2023 UNVEILING SOCIETIES IN FRAGMENTATION: HISTORICAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC APPROACHES I panel chaired the UNVEILING SOCIETIES IN FRAGMENTATION: HISTORICAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC APPROACHES session at the 'Fragments' postgraduate conference, during which the following researchers presented their research papers and partook in a panel discussion:
- Jane Skelding (Institute of Historical Studies): "Decoding the Archives: Locating Marginalized Histories through Fragments of Language in the Census and Literature of the Twentieth Century".
- Dr. Tugce Yalcin (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies): "Disclosure of Information in M&A Transactions in the Light of the Theory of Contract: Comparison of the Common Law and Civil Law".
- John Duncan (institute of Commonwealth Studies): "Fragmented Subjectivities: How Neoliberalism Creates Diverse Class Subjects".
15-Jun-2023 China’s Media Training Impact on Press Freedom in Africa: An Examination of Agency in the Ghanaian Context I presented a paper on the above title, which spoke to the preliminary wider arguments and conclusions in my PhD thesis.
23-May-2023 African Regional Champion? Ghana and freedom of expression I gave a keynote address at this seminar and participated in a panel discussion on the structural problems and interests which impede media freedom in Ghana, and which have seen the country decline sharply from 30th to 60th position on the 2022 World Press Freedom Index.