Francis-Xavier Sosu, a member of parliament for Madina, asked the information minister a question today in an effort to learn more about the safeguards put in place to protect press freedom in the nation.
This comes after Ghana's recent decline in press freedom rankings, which saw it drop from first place to tenth place in Africa and from 26th place to 60th place globally in 2016.
Concerns regarding severe press restrictions, including assault and threats of violence, as well as arbitrary detentions and prosecutions of journalists, were also expressed in the US Department of State's Human Rights Report.
You may recall that Ahmed Suale, an investigative reporter, was shot and murdered in Accra in broad daylight more over two years ago. Perpetrators are still at large.
For Tiger Eye Private Investigations, he has served as the chief investigator.
A year after the murder, national security officers detained Modern Ghana editor Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri and writer Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum at their workplaces and inspected their phones and laptops to try to find the source of an article concerning the national security chief.
The Media Foundation for West Africa kept track of around 31 attacks on 40 journalists over the course of 18 months by the year 2019.
Additionally, after being detained and arrested for photographing cars on the Ministry of National Security's property on May 11, 2021, Citi Fm/TV reporter Caleb Kudah was attacked by police at the Ministry.
More recently, on January 13, 2022, at 11:30 am, 10 armed, masked individuals stormed Radio Ada FM because the station had reported on a mining transaction.
Fourth Estate Editor-in-Chief Manasseh Azuri Awuni wrote on social media on May 4, 2022, "I completed some of the most daring things in the John Mahama period, and I never feared for my life as today. The threat is genuine.
Recall that on April 22, 2021, Sir Sam Jonah said in a speech to Rotarians in Accra on the topic of "Down the Escalator: Reflections on Ghana's Future by a Senior Citizen," "It appears to me that in recent times in our Fourth Republican dispensation, the courage to stand up seems to have diminished."
The will to protect the common good and the fortitude to speak out for the truth are lost. It is alarming that the voices of the intellectuals are fading into obscurity at these trying times for our country. I believe that quiet has once again become the norm.
According to Francis-Xavier Sosu, "Good administration and accountability are the foundation of every democracy. The desire to take accountability for one's governance choices and deeds is referred to as accountable governance. This suggests that the choice to strengthen accountability bodies and hold government decisions accountable to the public for upholding high moral and ethical standards and integrity in public life was made consciously. Sadly, for the past five years, this has been glaringly absent from the government led by Akuffo Addo-Bawumia.
"As a country, we know from experiences and the example of other countries that uncontrolled violence against journalists emboldens assailants and weakens freedom of the media," the Madina MP continued. The time has come to ensure that journalists and press freedom, as guaranteed by, among other things, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Ghanaian Constitution of 1992, are given the best possible protection.