An editor-in-chief for a Ghanaian state-owned corporation who agreed to be interviewed about brown envelope journalism noted that he received USD 200 for doing an interview with “a highly placed political figure”, according to the analysis ‘Impact of Brown Envelope Journalism (BEJ) on journalistic practice in Zambia and Ghana’.
This study reveals that the practice of BEJ is commonplace in Ghana (and Zambia) and that a major factor contributing to its high prevalence is journalists’ meagre pay. Almost all the journalists surveyed and interviewed attested to engage in the practice, which is named ‘soli’ (the term itself being an abbreviation of ‘solidarity’).