Dr. Wereko Brobbey Should Stop Peddling Falsehood – Abronye DC
Charles Wereko-Brobbey, on Joy FM, has scored President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s administration as having the worse press freedom record.
However, when he was tasked by the show host, Evans Mensah, to give his assessment of press freedom under current administration compared to the past governments, he said “I wouldn’t want to give a ranking except to say that the current government has been the worst…in the Fourth Republic”.
I deem the utterances of Wereko Brobbey baseless.. His statements are entirely false and not existent
Setting the records straight, 1. According to a research by the Today News Paper, A total of one hundred and five (105) media practitioners (journalists) were subjected to severe physical assault in Ghana between January 2012 and July 2014 with about eight-five (85) out of the number sustaining various degrees of injuries.
Investigations conducted by Today News Paper showed that the three Northern Regions in Ghana recorded the highest numbers of assault cases on journalists with a total number of 46 followed by Ashanti region 34; Greater Accra region10, Volta region 8, Western region 4 and Central region recording 3.
The unwarranted assaults on journalists, Today’s investigation revealed were mostly orchestrated by politicians, security apparatus, among others during the regime of the NDC as John Mahama as President
The increasing rate of attacks on journalists by unscrupulous people particularly the police and security personnel were left unaddressed by the then NDC Government.
2. On 7th September, 2014, three journalists from Multimedia Company, Felix Akunor, Jojo Cobbina and Festus Solomon were unlawfully arrested on the orders of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA,) Dr. Alfred Nii Okoe Vanderpuije for going to Mensah-Guinea in Accra to report on their plight.
3. Muftaw Mohammed, of privately-owned Metro FM, a radio station in Kumasi in the Ashanti region was on April 2014 arrested and detained unlawfully for taking pictures of some personnel from the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Force, allegedly taking money from commercial drivers. Mohammed was held by the police for several days and his iPad was seized.
4. on March 10, 2014, under the regime of John Mahama, Geoffrey Buta, a photographer of the state-owned newspaper, Ghanaian Times was also assaulted by a military man in Tamale, in the Northern Region.
5. Also, some crew of TV Africa was on March 7 2014 detained by some security personnel at Adjei Kojo, a suburb of Accra. The crew had gone to the area to do a follow-up on a demolition exercise that took place in the area.
6. Other media assaults were what happened to Jerrfery-De-Graft Johnson from Daily Guide and Malik Sulleman from Ghanaian Times who had gone to cover the trial case at an Accra Magi
Also, Ghana was ranked 22nd on the 2015 World Press Freedom, which placed the country in the “free” category (Reporters Without Borders, 2015). By the close of 2016, Ghana’s media freedom status worsened to 26th in the same ranking index.
Furthermore, in a compilation of freedom of expression (FoE) violations such as arrests, attacks and threats, fines, and imprisonment among 16 countries in West Africa in the first quarter of 2014, Ghana recorded the highest cases (eight) of the 25 overall media violations. This prompted the MFWA to issue a statement about the growing spate of attacks and harassment on media practitioners (Mordy, 2014). Subsequently, various media associations and regulatory bodies comprised of the National Media Commission (NMC), Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Ghana Independent Broadcaster’s Association (GIBA), and the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), jointly conveyed a press conference in this regard (Jafaru, 2014).
From the above analysis and records, it is clear that, Dr, Wreko Brobbey AKA Tarzan goofed and thus must apologize. This government is not the worse when it comes to world press freedom. Tarzan also failed again to provide facts to buttress his points today on News File. Tarzan should behave like a statesman and stop his unnecessary attacks on the government and the president because we all know his position about Nana Addo.
Finally, Attached is the 2018 report of Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders
From the above report, it is clear that, assault on journalists has not worsened under President Akuffo Addo. Ghana’s worst performance was in 2013 when it ranked 30 and its best was in 2015 ranking 22. Norway topped the world while Turkmenistan came last at 180.
The RSF Index, which evaluates the state of journalism in 180 countries and territories every year, shows that the administration of Nana Addo is not the worse when it comes to attack on journalists.
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