A disturbing phenomenon - Thinking Aloud with Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh

When people do not know about certain historical facts, they take things for granted and presume that they are better suited to tell the story of their nation, especially if they happen to be journalists, but as Achebe notes "the media are not there to satisfy the likes of them, not even now that they serve on the editorial boards".

Throughout the 1980s and until my retirement in 2018, I worked in a newsroom where many of the journalists took delight in scorning or mocking their counterparts who fell foul not necessarily of the law, but into the traps of dictatorship.

Many felt that as journalists working in state-owned media, we had an obligation to agree with the government on all matters and never to disagree with any policy, no matter how useful, productive, or useless it was.

In one bewildering instance, the sudden appearance of a journalist who had been detained and maltreated in military custody for two months for writing an article critical of the military in 1993, when we had entered the constitutional era, was received with joy by many in the newsroom while a few raised muted resentment.

In 1993, Prof. Albert Adu Boahen and Kwesi Pratt Jnr were arraigned before a public tribunal (district tribunal) in connection with a landmine found at a refuse dump at Bubuashie in Accra.

The Constitution had done away with district tribunals and had provided in the transition period that only cases heard up to a certain stage must continue until judgment while pending cases were to be transferred to district or circuit courts.

Only the Regional Tribunal was to be retained as part of the Superior Courts of Judicature.

But we have not had any Regional Tribunal since.

Unambiguous provisions

Despite these express and unambiguous provisions, the state found it expedient to send this fresh case to a district tribunal. I had not gone to the Ghana School of Law and thus was not a lawyer then.

Yet, with my reading and understanding of the provisions of the 1992 Constitution, I found the development disturbing and unlawful.

Accordingly, I took up the matter and wrote about it, pointing out the need to respect the rule of law and due process. 

My biggest challenge was my colleagues in the newsroom who not only failed to appreciate our obligation to promote and strengthen democracy but, more importantly, to ensure that the government and all agencies of the state respected the rule of law, due process, and provisions of the 1992 Constitution, especially Article 162(5).

The article provides that, "All agencies of the mass media shall, at all times, be free to uphold the principles, provisions and objectives of this Constitution and shall uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people of Ghana".

In those times, we had typists in the newsroom who typed our handwritten scripts.

For two days, the typist tried to dodge typing my article.

When he was finally prevailed upon to type, the Features Editor, Mr Daniel Kondor, felt a certain uneasiness about publishing it.

I continuously engaged him for three days. When he eventually opened up, he told me he could not contemplate how the Editor would take it.

I was the Associate Editor at the time.

Upon understanding why he was reluctant to use my article, I explained to him that I could order and direct him, but I wanted him to exercise some editorial independence.

I pointed out, however, that if after another two days the article was not published, I would work on it and get it published, and that if the Editor had any challenge, he would speak to me, not him.

Thereafter, the article was published.

That same day, there was a directive to transfer the matter from the tribunal to the Circuit Court.

That same day, many of my colleagues who were heard complaining the previous evening that I had never written anything positive about the government and that it was too early to criticise the government’s actions because we had just entered into constitutional democratic rule from a military regime, came to ask where I got the courage to write the article.

They were all pleased about the outcome but feared there could be some repercussions.

But I did not have any hunches at all because even under the Provisional National Defence Council, I had criticised some policies and even told the Secretary of Information, who had asked why I did not support the government’s policy, whether he expected me to embrace any government policy as soon as it was made public since I am never privy to the reasons that informed such policy.

My expectation of our journalists who have lived through the 1992 Constitution with all the guarantees of freedom is that they would not only protect media freedoms but equally honour the spirit and letter of Article 162 (5) in accordance with Article 41, which states that there can be no right without a corresponding obligation or responsibility to perform a duty.

That is why I am urging our journalists, especially those working in the state-owned media, not to condone the Minister of the Interior in having the temerity to state on the floor of Parliament that an attempt by officials of state security to enforce a decision of a High Court after the Supreme Court had frozen that decision, is not only a demonstration of militant disorder but a serious breach and undermines the rule of law, due process and constitutionalism. 

Join hands

It is imperative that the Ghanaian media, Members of Parliament, and all well-meaning Ghanaians join hands in stemming the tide of misuse of state security and known party hoodlums to cause havoc to individuals, no matter how evil they seem. The philosophy of our jurisprudence is that a man is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

It might be a stab in the back of journalists who fought for freedom and independence of the media in the inglorious period of military dictatorship to live to see those born into constitutional democracy surrendering their rights because as Achebe maintains, " today's incident has shown that a man must not swallow his cough because he fears to disturb others" nor should they take the recent developments " for granted like the attention of the invisible bell-boy who shines your shoes overnight in an expensive hotel"!