According to a release issued and
signed the Acting General Secretary of ProJUG, Kofi Ahovi it
stated that two members union who were in the company of
officials from the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO)
were last Wednesday attacked by security personnel at the former
president John Agyekum Kufuor’s house.
The two reporters belonging to the
union are Mr. Justice Lee Adobea and Ekow Moses and also of
reporters of the Financial Intelligence newspaper, the Ghanaian
Voice newspaper and Radio Gold must be condemned by all lovers
of democracy and friends of the media.
Though the
ex-president’s spokesperson has rendered an apology, it is in
our view that verbal apologies are nothing if they do not come
with a change of heart.
Sincerely, this is not the first
time journalists have suffered brutalization in the hands of
security details associated with the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
We recall that not too long ago (during the heat of the 2008
general elections) some members of ProJUG, including the Ag.
Vice President, were seriously attacked by the personal body
guards of Nana Akufo Addo at his residence, when all they seek
was to do their job. Police report was made
but no action has been taken yet, the statement noted.
“We wish to state that it is time
political parties and their leaders in this country, especially
the NPP, to bring its security apparatus to order and to let
them know that the media plays a very important role in building
the democracy of this country. Ghana’s democracy is still
fragile and the frequent occurrence of such attacks on
journalists will mar it”.
We are also demanding an
unqualified apology from the security forces especially the
police for their attacks on us. We are also calling on the
authorities to seriously take up the matter and investigate it
so the culprits involved can be brought to book, it stressed.
We believe that the lackadaisical
behavior of the law enforcers to enforce the law motivates
people with sinister motives to engage in criminal acts.
In any case, it is against the
human rights law to subject anybody to physical attack whether
the person is found guilty of a crime or not.
That not withstanding we find it
very worrying when sections of the media rejoice over the
incident instead of condemning it. We believe it is unethical
for a media house to question what a journalist (irrespective of
his media affiliation) was doing at the scene. It is ill-advised
that a media house will rejoice over such an incidence and
quickly jump to tag the journalists involved as political party
activists. We have come a long way and we must grow up to live
up to expectation.
The statement however called on
journalists in the country to also exercise restraints in their
endeavours to ensure peace.
Ghanadot
