President Akufo-Addo’s claim about freedom of expression condition in Ghana not entirely true – Media Foundation For West Africa

On Wednesday, March 8, 2023, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana, delivered the State of the Nation Handle (SONA) in Parliament. Among the many many points he reported on was the state of freedom of expression within the nation, which he boasted has reached enviable heights.

“Right this moment, we dwell in a rustic during which we get pleasure from full freedom of expression, freedom of affiliation, freedom of meeting, freedom of faith and political affiliation. Certainly, freedom of speech has now reached such heights that even members of the diplomatic corps really feel in a position to take part our nationwide discourse…,” President Akufo-addo stated.

The Media Basis for West Africa (MFWA) contests as inaccurate the President’s idyllic evaluation of freedom of expression in Ghana and avers that the info on the bottom don’t look half as cheerful because the president claims.

Whereas freedom of expression is assured underneath Ghana’s 1922 Structure, this freedom is undermined when these exercising it worry retribution within the type of threats, arrest and bodily assaults, as has been the case for a lot of journalists and activists underneath the Akufo-Addo administration.

From 2021 to 2022 the MFWA recorded 30 press freedom violations in Ghana, with the state safety brokers accounting for 67% of the abuses. That is captured in our latest report on press freedom underneath the Fourth Republic, which was additionally revealed within the Day by day Graphic (January 27, 2023 version). We, subsequently, contemplate President Akufo-Addo’s Freedom of Expression declare as incorrect, and the next are additional causes.

Ghana dropped from having the freest media setting in Africa in 2018 to 13^th within the 2022 international press freedom rating by Reporters with out Borders (RSF). The rating noticed Ghana outdone even by strife-ridden and junta-ruled Burkina Faso. On the worldwide rating, Ghana dropped from 30^th place in 2021 to 60^th in 2022, the worst rating the nation has acquired in 20 years. That is apparent proof of decay, not enchancment.

It’s underneath the Akufo-Addo regime that Ghana has recorded essentially the most brazen assaults on press freedom, such because the killing of Ahmed Suale Divela. As is well-documented, Suale’s loss of life adopted a marketing campaign of incitement in opposition to the journalist by a number one member of the ruling New Patriotic Get together (NPP), Kennedy Ohene Agyapong. Regrettably, the authorities have ignored the politician’s expensive incitement.

Whereas it’s apparent that Suale’s killing was due to his work, the President, on the 2019 Ghana Bar Affiliation assembly held in Takoradi, and his Legal professional-Common, at a discussion board to mark World Human Rights day 2022 in Accra, took turns to dismiss any suggestion that Suale’s homicide was an assault on press freedom.

In an operation that one couldn’t think about underneath a broadly admired democracy akin to Ghana’s, some closely armed nationwide safety operatives raided the premises of two media organisations in 2019 and 2020. Within the first incident, the safety brokers arrested two journalists of ModernGhana.com and seized cell phones, tablets and computer systems. One of many victims, Emmanuel Ajarfo, alleged that he was tortured throughout his three days in detention over a report on the Minister of Nationwide Safety.

Within the second incident,  one other group of armed safety officers stormed Citi FM/TV in a bid to retrieve some video information from journalist Zoe Abu-Baidoo. The safety brokers accused Abu-Baidoo of receiving information from Caleb Kudah additionally of Citi FM/TV. Kudah had earlier been arrested and abused for filming deserted autos on the Nationwide Safety Ministry and sending the information to Abu-Baidoo.

Whereas mass failure to resume broadcast licenses is widespread underneath all earlier administrations, it was underneath Akuffo-Addo’s regime that over 50 defaulting radio stations have been shut down; in a largely opaque and discriminatory train that focused sure important and pro-opposition stations.

In an act denounced by the MFWA as a harmful precedent, the Nationwide Communications Authority (NCA) shut downRadio Tongu over alleged disturbing content material and mismanagement. This was a flagrant usurpation of the features of the impartial Nationwide Media Fee, the physique constitutionally mandated to manage and sanction inappropriate content material. It was broadly condemned as harmful as a result of it might be politically-motivated. The board and Director Common of the NCA are political appointees and are topic to the directives of a Minister of Communication with political pursuits.

The federal government can also be accused of circumventing the repeal of felony libel by utilizing the Digital Communications Act and the Prison Code, particularly Part 208 of the Prison and Different Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), to go on rampage in opposition to a lot of journalists and civil society activists for his or her publications within the media.

Certainly, between Could 2021 and February, 2022, 5 journalists and one civil society activist have been arrested on accusations of publishing false information. These embrace Noah Dameh, a journalist with Radio Ada primarily based within the Better Accra Area; Nhyiraba Paa Kwesi Simpson, a radio presenter with Join FM primarily based in Takoradi; Kwabena Bobbie Ansah, a presenter at Accra FM; and Mensah Thompson, the Govt Director of Alliance of Social Fairness and Public Accountability (ASEPA), civil society organisation.

The crackdown grew to become so intense that on February 12, 2022, 4 civil society organisations, (CSOs) Ghana Centre for Democratic Growth (CDD-Ghana), IMANI Africa, STAR-Ghana and the Africa Middle for Worldwide Legislation & Accountability (ACILA), collectively issued a statement demanding an finish to the sneaky return to the times of felony libel.

“Instructively, throughout the heyday of the felony libel legislation within the Nineties, the felony legislation was utilized in exactly the way in which it’s now getting used: to prosecute and punish journalists and public audio system for allegedly false or defamatory statements in opposition to sure relations or associates of the President”, the CSOs stated in an announcement.

Earlier on July 19, 2021, the MFWA mobilised 642 journalists and press freedom supporters to petition  Parliament and the Nationwide Safety Minister over the wave of assaults on journalists, particularly by state safety brokers.

In its recent report marking the 4^th anniversary of the unresolved killing of Ahmed Suale, the US-based Committee to Defend Journalists (CPJ), cited a number of press freedom violations in opposition to journalists in Ghana. “Since Divela’s [Suale] loss of life, no less than 30 different Ghanaian journalists and media employees have confronted abuses in reference to their work, together with assaults, threats, and arrests,” CPJ said.

The MFWA recognises that the media and journalists can typically be reckless, unethical and unprofessional within the discharge of their duties. The legal guidelines of the nation present treatments for civil actions in opposition to journalists and media organisations. Below the Akufo-Addo administration, nevertheless, the criminalisation of free speech underneath the guise of publication of false information has been used to harass journalists.

Many have criticised this strategy as being high-handed and according to the style during which illiberal and autocratic governments sometimes take care of dissent and press offenses. With these and different incidents underneath the present administration, Ghana’s press freedom report underneath Nana Addo’s authorities is way from the rosy image the President painted in his State of the Nation Handle.