Kofi Yeboah, general secretary of the Ghana Journalists Association, is an advocate for the removal of the law that makes it illegal to publish inaccurate information.
He asserts that if a person believes a publication may have harmed his or her reputation, there are further avenues for pursuing compensation.
"I believe there are other legal measures we can take to handle this situation, and a person who feels wronged by a certain publication may pursue a number of options. You can use your right to rebuttal by submitting a complaint to the NMC, which is also provided for in the constitution. You can file a lawsuit for defamation since it might have negative consequences, the man stated.
He highlighted on The Law on JoyNews that situations involving false news were better handled as civil actions as opposed to criminal offenses.
Why wouldn't we want to go through the civil processes and even how these matters are handled? It was something against the First Lady in the instance of Bobie Ansah.
You don't need to use criminal law, in my honest opinion; the First Lady may file a defamation lawsuit instead," he stated on Sunday.
He went on to say that the legislation against false publishing should be reviewed because of the manner in which it was being implemented, which sounded nefarious.
The General Secretary also clarified that his advocacy did not give the media carte blanche to behave recklessly. But he thinks the National Media Commission (NMC), the organisation in charge of It was better to address such concerns by requiring registration, regulation, and monitoring of the media.
He said, "In the case of the NMC, for example, why would we not consider this popular view that the NMC should be empowered to enforce its orders?" when asked what other strict measures people might use to restrain the media because the NMC could not enforce orders.
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