Three senior journalists who just returned from Ivory Coast where they held meetings with embattled President, Laurent Gbagbo have denied their trip was sponsored by the government.
During the trip, Paul Adom-Otchere of Metro TV, Kwesi Pratt of the Insight and Raymond Archer of The Enquirer conducted interviews with Laurent Gbagbo. They say the visit gave them a deeper insight into the crisis in La Cote d’Ivoire.
Mr. Pratt, who is the Managing Editor of the Insight, describes the suggestions that they were sponsored as insulting. “I think this is the biggest insult that I have had over many years. I’ve been in the practice of journalism for well over 30 years – I did my first radio interview in 1969 – this is the biggest insult that anybody can heap on me,” he said.
Mr Pratt maintained that “the government of Ghana had absolutely nothing to do with the trip to La Cote d’Ivoire, not half a penny of Ghana government money was expended on that trip and I feel very insulted by that suggestion.”
He explained that “if the suggestion is that we were sent by government to do work for government then Paul Adom-Otchere would not have been on the trip because Paul Adom-Otchere is not a member of government.”
Mr. Pratt argues that the Ivorian crisis can only be resolved if the international community takes an objective, rather than a biased, position.
He said he learnt during the trip that under the Ivorian Constitution, the internationally recognized winner of the elections in that country, Alassane Ouatarra, and his ally who also contested in the first round of the elections, Henri Konan Bédié, were not qualified to contest the polls.
“They were given a special dispensation by Laurent Gbagbo to contest the elections,” he added.
Meanwhile the fate of the four Ghanaians in the custody of Alassane Ouatarra’s security forces is still unknown as Government of Ghana has still been unable to secure their release three weeks after they were arrested for allegedly being mercenaries for Gbagbo.