How can the president say killing of Ahmed Suale is not linked to press freedom? Manasseh
Ghana dropped places in World Freedom Index mainly because of a change in methodology, Government
Renowned investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni has bemoaned the response of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo and his government on issues surrounding press freedom in Ghana.
According to Manasseh, the president has failed to take any action against persons close to him and government agencies who have been figured in attacks against journalists since he came to power, myjoyonline.com reports.
“Last year, for instance, if you read the Information Minister’s press statement, they mentioned other countries that also did poorly compared to their previous rankings.
“Now, we have Ahmed Suale who was murdered after he was openly threatened by a top politician of the governing party and we had the President of this country go the Bar conference in Takoradi and said inasmuch as the death was unfortunate, it was equally unfortunate for people to say that his killing was linked to press freedom,” he said.
He added that the failure of the president to take action when journalists are attacked will make people think that it is normal to do it which implies that media personnel will be subjected to more brutality.
Manasseh intimated that the number and severity of attacks on journalists have increased under the watch of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
“It was very common to threaten somebody, and one would take it lightly, but if your colleague investigative journalist is put on television and threatened, and later that person is killed, you are going to treat threats seriously and differently.
“Also, we are beginning to see state actors that are getting involved; the National Security, and we know the National Security in Ghana is like an extension of the government or the governing party. So, we saw what the National Security did to the Modern Ghana journalist,” he said.
Manasseh Azure Awuni made these comments while reacting to a press statement issued by the Ministry of Information in response to Ghana’s performance on the 2022 World Press Freedom Index.
The ministry largely explained that Ghana dropped places because of the change in methodology used in the computation of the index.
Ghana ranked 60th out of 180 countries in the 2022 World Press Freedom index. This shows that Ghana has dropped 30 places in the world from its previous 30th position, and it also fell by six places from its previous third position in Africa.
The report indicated that for journalists to protect their jobs and security, they mostly resort to self-censorship, as the government is intolerant of criticism.
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Renowned investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni