The chairman of the National Media Commission (NMC), Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafo, has claimed that media freedom in Ghana is not under threat.
Boadu-Ayeboafo expressed concern over the 2022 Press Freedom Index, which saw Ghana slip 30 places from 30th in 2021 to 60th in 2022, the lowest in 17 years after ranking 66th in 2005.
"Certainly, any logical person will be concerned," Boadu-Ayeboafo stated on Asaase Radio on Saturday (7 May). For whatever reason, if it had been two or three [pts] lower, you'd consider it normal."
"However, a decline of 30 points, or a 100 percent reduction, is cause for alarm." But it also provides a sobering opportunity for rigorous analysis to determine what basics aren't functioning and how we got to this position," he added.
"I don't believe that journalistic freedom is under threat," he continued. That is not to say that there haven't been certain occurrences that have harmed freedom of expression, such as overzealous security officers, intolerant Ghanaians, and irresponsible media. So all of this together creates that mood."
Meanwhile, the executive director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has said that the Ghanaian media is under assault as a result of the recent arrests of certain prominent figures. At least three people are being prosecuted in court, including ASEPA executive director Mensah Thompson and governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Bono regional chairman Kwame Baffoe (also known as Abronye DC), for remarks they made in the media that the police claim are false publications.
"So, if a journalist feels that 'what is happening makes me unsafe and I am likely to be picked, arrested, beaten, or bullied,' then it leads to self-censorship, and even if the person does not self-censor, he or she may or may not put out what he or she may put out there with fear," Braimah told Kofi Abotsi on Townhall Talk.