Continuous drop on World Press Freedom Index worrying

Ghana is regarded as a beacon of democracy in Africa and one of the few success stories on a continent with a history of political instability, totalitarianism and oppression of journalists.

The country has one of the best media-friendly laws in the world. Chapter 12 of the 1992 Constitution guarantees press freedom. The Right to Information Act has also activated the constitutional right to information while the draconian Criminal Libel Law, which criminalised the publication of libelous statements, has long been repealed.

Despite all these legal frameworks to protect press freedom and the country’s enviable democratic credentials, the past three years have seen the country drop on the World Press Freedom Index, the annual ranking on press freedom compiled by Reporters Without Borders or Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF).

In the 2020 index, Ghana was ranked 30th out of 180 countries, a drop of three places from its 2019 rank of 27. Ghana fell four places in 2019 from its 2018 ranking of 23.

The RSF’s main reason for Ghana’s consistent drop on the index is that the country was not doing enough to protect journalists.

It cited the murder of Ahmed Suale in 2018 and what it described as the lack of progress on investigations as a reason for the country’s continuous slide on the index.

Also, according to the RSF, “a vast majority of cases of police aggression against journalists go unpunished and yet timid attempts have been made to combat this impunity.”

On March 19, 2019, the Daily Graphic published that none of the security persons accused of attacking more than 25 journalists and media employees since 2006 had been prosecuted.

Although the perpetrators in some of the cases are identified, the cases are settled sometimes with apologies.

In most cases, however, no compensation is paid, while the security organisation involved promises to offer better working relations with the media.

Some of the attacks have left journalists with serious medical conditions. For instance, Victor Kwawukume, formerly of the Daily Graphic, lost his sense of smell as a result of being beaten by the Ho Police while covering a swoop on criminals.

In another instance, Mr Latif Iddrisu, a journalist with the Multimedia Group, was left with a fractured skull after the police had brutally assaulted him in front of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters in Accra while reporting on a protest by some members of the National Democratic Congress.

As a leader in press freedom on the continent, our continuous drop on the World Press Freedom Index demands deeper reflection and action from us all.
Ghana must do more to protect journalists and others who have the duty of making information available to people.

The Daily Graphic believes that failure to protect journalists from all sorts of physical attacks and intimidation, no matter how subtle, would be a grave danger to our democracy.

We, however, commend the Police Administration for coming up with a police-media relations manual in 2019 which seeks to provide a framework on how the police will relate with the media.

Among other things, the manual provides guidelines as to how media practitioners can seek redress when attacked by any police officer as they go about their work.

The Daily Graphic urges the public, security agencies and other stakeholders to deepen their collaboration with media organisations to stop attacks on journalists.

We also call on the Ghana Journalists Association to do more than the issuing of press statements to help protect its members.The association cannot prosecute people who assault their members but they can help them take civil actions against such persons.

Protecting journalists means not resorting to assault and intimidation when one is aggrieved by the work of a journalist or a media house. There are available means of redress, such as filing a suit against defamation and reporting to the National Media Commission, which can be activated by an aggrieved party.

As a country, we must see the ink fraternity as a key player in development. We are of the view that we need to protect journalists not just to improve our standing on the World Press Freedom Index, but also prove to ourselves and the world that we are indeed a democratic country which can be emulated by others.