{"id":622776,"date":"2019-05-20T21:38:42","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T21:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"
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\"Media<\/p>\n
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\"Media<\/figure>\n

Former President, John Dramani Mahama has accused the Akufo-Addo government for failing to ensure that the rights and lives of journalists in the country are protected.<\/p>\n

He says, the governing party\u2019s poor handling of the recent\u00a0incidents of violent attacks and assault on journalists including the murder of an investigative journalist with Anas Aremeyaw Anas\u2019 TigerEye PI, Ahmed Suale and the threats on the lives some other journalists including Manasseh Azure is to blame for the dip in Ghana\u2019s media credentials on the international scene.<\/p>\n

Although journalists in the country are rarely arrested unjustly, they continue to be under threats of physical attacks and abuse, in some cases by police officers\u00a0 a situation Mr. Mahama said confirms he deteriorating state of Ghana\u2019s media freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cNana Addo signed the criminal libel law so that journalists could no longer be penalized for their write-ups and yet under him press freedom is deteriorating. The last index that was published, Ghana has slipped several steps behind in terms of press freedom. At first, you go out and people tell you they admire the media independence of your country,\u00a0 but today we don\u2019t feel the same.\u00a0 Everybody now feels there is a certain emasculation of the media space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Democratic Congress\u2019 flag-bearer (NDC)\u00a0 further described as shameful the practice where governments take on journalists merely because their administration has been criticized.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLook at the threat to journalists. Mannaseh Azure was very active in our time and made several exposes but no body went after him. Mannaseh never said he feel a threat\u00a0 under my administration. Even if our media is not perfect, we must encourage it to improve and not to harass anybody. Ahmed Suale has lost his life and it has gone international. I travel outside and people ask me what is happening in Ghana.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy should journalists feel threatened because they criticize government. I came into office and faced some of the worse criticisms that any President has ever faced in this country. It is good for our democracy if they criticize us. If their stories are not true, you respond if you can. But under this President, I think the media is under attack\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Reporters Without Borders in its recent World Press Freedom Index saw Ghana lose its spot as one of the best-ranked countries for press freedom.<\/p>\n

The drop was attributed mainly to the murder of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale earlier in 2019.<\/p>\n

Globally, the country dropped from 23 in 2018 to 27 in 2019.<\/p>\n

Ghana\u2019s drop in press freedom ranking a wake-up call \u2013 Affail Monney<\/strong><\/p>\n

The president of the Ghana Journalist Association of Ghana (GJA), Affail Monney has said that Ghana\u2019s drop in the latest ranking of the World Press Freedom Index must serve as a wake-up call to increase the protection of journalists in the country.<\/p>\n

Affail Monney said security agencies and other state actors must work to protect journalists as they discharge their duties as expected in working democracies.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is a wakeup call to all of us to extend better protection especially officialdom and the security apparatus to ensure that journalists are protected better than it is now and to ensure that cases of attacks against journalists are also investigated expeditiously and the perpetrators deal with surgically. This is the time for us to deal with impunity head one otherwise we will continue to slip and once we slip, the beacon of our democracy will also dim,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Press freedom: Gov\u2019t pledges to boost protection of journalists<\/strong><\/p>\n

The government of Ghana through the Ministry of Information has pledged to improve the safety of journalists as they carry out their mandate in the country.<\/p>\n

It said it is hoping to do this with the introduction of a Coordinating Mechanism on the Safety of Journalists which will be ready before July 2019.<\/p>\n

The Ministry said the government is committed to supporting measures that will strengthen press freedom and free expression in the advancement of Ghana\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Former President, John Dramani Mahama has accused the Akufo-Addo government for failing to ensure that the rights and lives of journalists in the country are protected. He says, the governing party\u2019s poor handling of the recent\u00a0incidents of violent attacks and assault on journalists including the murder of an investigative journalist with Anas Aremeyaw Anas\u2019 TigerEye […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":617993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-622776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nMedia freedom vulnerable under Nana Addo -Mahama - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/05\/20\/media-freedom-vulnerable-under-nana-addo-mahama\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Media freedom vulnerable under Nana Addo -Mahama - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Former President, John Dramani Mahama has accused the Akufo-Addo government for failing to ensure that the rights and lives of journalists in the country are protected. 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