Justice Dery fumes over Anas' Best Journalist award

Lawyer for interdicted High Court Judge, Justice Paul Uuter Dery says his client will pursue legal action against the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) for awarding investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, as Journalsit of the Year on Saturday.

Anas's exposé on judicial corruption fingered several judges including Justice Dery which won him the top GJA award over the weekend.

However, Justice Dery's Lawyer, Nii Kpakpo Addo in an interview on Citi FM said his client will formally protest the conferment of the award on Anas with the GJA.

He described the award as a celebration of unethical journalism by the GJA.

"The entity Tigereye PI and Mr Anas Aremeyaw Anas were in February this year adjudged by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ghana to have violated the 1992 constitution by putting out the videos that they said contained evidence to support the petition they had filed against my client and some other judges.”

“The Supreme Court of the Republic of Ghana upheld that his entity had violated the constitution and therefore the actions were unlawful.  If his entity has now been awarded the highest award of the Ghana Journalists Association, which is to epitomize excellence in journalism, it means that you have carried out your work with due process and due regard for the highest standard that you have in your profession.

"Then it means that the award is being used to celebrate an entity and an activity that has been declared to be unlawful by the Supreme Court of Ghana in respect of their conduct in airing the said videos whilst the impeachment processes were ongoing.”

“Secondly, we have ongoing cases in the High Court and the Supreme Court. In the Supreme Court, a judgment is due on October 27 this year. We have ongoing cases at the High Court which are seeking to challenge the legality of the acquisition of the so called evidence by the said entity which you have awarded,” he added. 

He hinted that the GJA were likely to be sighted for contempt for validating the actions of Anas, alleging that the investigative journalist did not even put in an entry to contest for the award.

He quizzed, “If you confer your highest award to an individual validating his activity which activities are the subject matter of ongoing legal challenges; then what are you trying to tell the court? That in your opinion the person did no wrong.

"For you, the person’s activities and actions are without question and what is interesting is that from the information that we have ascertained from reliable sources within the GJA, it is clear that Mr. Anas never applied for the award. The obvious question is why did he not apply for the award if that is his biggest story since last year."