The Deputy Minister of Information, Ms Fatimatu Abubakar, has stated that attacks on journalists and media organisations in the country are not the doing of the government of Ghana and therefore cannot be held responsible.
Ms. Abubakar said some of the issues that had served as basis for criticism of Ghana’s press freedom are sometimes due to overzealous security personnel dealings or the youth reacting to issues affecting their communities.
In addressing these issues, she said the government had undertaken a number of projects including the creation of the Office of Coordinated Mechanism on the Safety of Journalists to receive and address complaints.
She said as mechanism to address misinformation in the country, the government is taking the necessary steps to drive the Broadcasting Bill, but needs to be cautious so that successive government does not abuse the bill.
Addressing journalists in the country in commemoration of World Press Freedom Day 2022 at the International Press Centre in Accra, the President of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), Mr. Affail Money said the conditions of service of Journalists from time immemorial has been nothing to write home about as most journalists including retired, wallow in abject poverty.
It is against this background that the GJA, has emphasized journalists’ deplorable conditions and called for a good condition of service for same.
He stressed that there can never be Press Freedom when journalists exist in conditions of corruption, poverty or fear.
“The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) bluntly puts it that “there can be no press freedom if journalists exist in conditions of corruption, poverty or fear.” In the face of the cost-of-living challenges, the time has come, more than ever before, to address the flip -flop poverty in the media”, the GJA President stressed.
“We watched with shudder and heard with shiver, merciless arrests and reckless attacks and animalistic disregard for the rights of a number of journalists in the line of duty. The deterministic outcome has been as sharp deterioration of the safety of journalists. Death threats rained on investigative journalists also went uninvestigated, let alone punished, while law enforcement officers who were supposed to protect journalists rather brutalized them”, he decried.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Representative to Ghana, Mr. Abdourahamane Diallo, advised the government and its stakeholders to analyse and address issues that led to the decline on the index.
He said the performance was “not good news”, and promised that the organisation would join other stakeholders to help the country redeem its image.
With this year marking the 10th anniversary of UN Plan of Action for the Safety of Journalists and the issue of impunity, Mr. Diallo said efforts must be redoubled to ensure a safe working environment for journalists and media workers.
Representatives of the US Embassy, European Union, United Nations and the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) added their voices to calls for media freedom in Ghana to be deepened.
