Police Bans Journalists From Taking Crime-Scene Pictures

Protocols, under a new police transformation agenda, bans Journalists from taking or airing close range pictures at accident or crime scenes, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Mr David Senanu Eklu, Director General, police public Affairs has said.

Additionally, the police would not allow media coverage of police operations such as identification parades and swoops, he emphasized, while also cautioning the police to, on no account, release such pictures to the media.

Mr Eklu, speaking at a Police-Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) media engagement in Kumasi last Thursday, said it was important media personnel adhered to ethical norms by ensuring that the gory faces or bodies of dead accident victims or even criminals, did not show in the public domain.

This would be a way of respecting their rights to human dignity while being careful not to hurt the traditional cultures, sensibilities and emotions of the families that they belonged to. He told the gathering, made up of Senior Journalists from the print, radio and television, that under the new agenda, the police is using the protocol, to seek a stronger partnership with the media to tap its advantage as a channel which can aid the police in its function of providing security, crime detection and prevention.