Media is under attack, not siege - NMC boss

The Chairman of the National Media Commission, Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh says the Ghanaian media is not under siege despite some reprehensible and abominable attacks on some media practitioners in the line of duty.

Speaking at the 2nd Anniversary Lecture of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) on Thursday in Accra, Mr Boadu-Ayeboafoh said if indeed the media was under siege, practitioners would not be able to tell stories of brutalities that have been meted out to them.

He argued that the media was not besieged because it (the media) was able to fight off violent attacks, adding that it was important for a distinction to be made between acts which the State was responsible for and the actions of deviants.

"I cannot conclude with certainty or definitiveness that the media are besieged and that the present is not conducive to the practice of journalism in freedom and independence, and this is the basis," Mr Ayeboafoh said during his address on the topic: Is the media under siege?.

"I think that if you say that media has come under attack, it is different from suggesting that the media have been besieged. Indeed, if you are besieged you have been so incapacitated that you are unable to defend yourself. You cannot do anything to free yourself. That is the moment of besiegement, and so whilst admitting that there have been attacks on the media, that all of these attacks are unwarranted in the face of the legal regime that we are operating where there is a guarantee of media freedom, it cannot be sustained under any circumstances, right?

"But does that mean that we are besieged? If we are besieged we will not be able to tell some of the stories that we have been telling about the brutalities that have been meted out to us".

Recalling several instances of 'besiegement' of the media in the 1980s, he said some journalists were summoned, detained and punished by the military and the police and punished because of stories they had written or were working on.

Mr Ayeboafoh also mentioned that there were many times when stories written by reporters were replaced by reports from official stories.

"When you live through this kind of experiences, that is why I am saying the one who has eaten gong-gong fears not the stick. Because even though you can chew the metal, what is the wood to you...

"Today, no journalist would have their bylines on stories they did not author. More importantly, no journalist can be detained today for hours before it becomes an issue for public discourse, that is why no matter the number of attacks on media personnel, the media cannot be said to be under siege. For it is through the same media that the matter of these unlawful acts would be exposed to enable the victim regain their independence.

"Today no group or individual, no matter how powerful or influential can emasculate or enmesh the media and here is where we in the media must do all we can to ensure that every attack on media freedom is not only exposed but properly and thoroughly investigated and dealt with in line with the rule of law".

He advised victims to desist from entering into agreements with perpetrators of violence against the media.

Press freedom in Ghana

In April this year, Ghana dropped to 27th place out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders or Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) annual World Press Freedom Index.

Ghana fell four places from its 2018 ranking of 23 on account of what the RSF described as "not enough protection for journalists" following the shooting of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale and threats on the lives of members of the Tiger Eye PI investigative group.

According to the RSF, investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his Tiger Eye team spent part of 2018 in hiding after producing a documentary about Ghanaian soccer corruption which led to the resignation of FIFA Council member and former GFA President Kwesi Nyantakyi.

Investigative journalist Hussein-Suale who was gunned down by two suspected gunmen on Wednesday, January 16, 2019, in Accra was a key member of the Tiger Eye PI sting operation which implicated Mr Nyantakyi in a corruption scandal. The findings of the sting were published in a documentary titled #Number12 on June 6, 2018.