Criminal discourse creates an economy of fear - Barker-Vormawor 


Private lawyer, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, argued that in order to support and strengthendemocracy and democratic practices in Ghana, free speech should be practiced completely.

A lawyer who describes himself as an absolutist speaker saidthat the crime of unwantedspeech is against the development of the country's democracy and the progress of the media. He explained that the only restrictions on speech should be based on social norms and not criminal law, as the latter creates an atmosphere of fear around speech.

Speaking on JoyNews' The Law, he said that criminalizing unwanted speech creates an economy of fear around speech. I have described myself as a freespeech person because I generally believe that the way you support democracy and strengthen democracy is to allow free speech. him. I think that the restriction of speech is preceded by a change of discussion and debate, that I will say something and someonewill make a statement and say that we do not agree with this and we criticize it. This is one of the ways our social norms handle issues, not through criminal law.

"Because once you bringcriminal law into this system,one of the things you're going to create is you're going to create an economy of fear that speaks.But if people can listen to his words and say "this person said this but we criticized that", then it is good.

"One of the things that I have supported as an example, even in my position since we started, are those who say 'we agree with a lot of what you said but we don't agree, agree with what you said. said where a" and I said it was good. This is how democracy should work so that other voices can contribute tothe person's speech, which will allow for clarity," he said.


Mr Barker-Vormawor, who is also the co-ordinator of the FixTheCountry movement, saidthat protecting unwantedspeech was the main ideabehind establishing freedom of speech. He said “because if it is[desirable] then there is no concern about it. So I think that the practice of democracy expects us to meet the issuesthat we find negative and that's good because by allowing the negative issues we -create a way to talk about what needs to be done. 

He insisted that the principles that lawyers learn to investigate criminal casesshould be applied to the law. “For example, in the case of crime, we say that it is better that one person who commits a crime is released than thatinnocent people are locked up. We should also bring the same perspective to how words work. But if the right to free speech in general, even if there may be bad words that we don't agree with, that's fine. At the very least, we're opening windows and doors for the next issue to happen. "That is why I say if we think in the language of what we are trying to achieve in terms of security and security media, then we will return to the question of whether these laws equal and necessary to power. open the window so that people canspeak more to strengthen democracy," he said.

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