Investigative Journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has served notice that he is ready to stand before the court of law if an aggrieved person files a lawsuit against him because he sees absolutely nothing wrong with his kind of reportage.
According to Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who says his aim of doing undercover journalism is to name, shame and jail, the issue of the legal status of undercover journalism should not be the main focus. He maintained that what should rather be put into consideration is if the investigative pieces produced are of human interest.
“I think that it has been an old age debate that has been going on but as a lawyer the key things I will look at is whether that piece of work is in the public interest,” he said at the just ended World Press Freedom Day event held in Accra.
Anas Aremeyaw Anas, known for his exposé on corruption and illegal practices in the country has not been the ‘favourite’ of many, especially perpetrators who accuse him of invading their privacy after being caught in the act of dishonesty.
Many of such culprits, have as a result, resorted to the court by suing him for not exercising discretion. One of such is former High Court Judge Paul Uuter Dery after he and other High Court Judges were indicted for trading justice for monetary and other material benefits after an investigation conducted by Anas and his team.
However, the Tiger Eye PI boss explained to fellow colleague journalists at the gathering that the act of disguising one’s self to gather information during an undercover operation is the modus operandi at most media houses including BBC and CNN, hence he believes he is on course.
“…. So yes, I need not say, I mean I do not have to argue for undercover because it’s the same undercover that you see on CNN, BBC, and everywhere. Whatever you see here is the same people who do it across the world,” he stressed
Anas indicated that “even if you are brought before the court, one of the issue that will be looked is whether you just disregarded everything and you went for someone’s privacy. So far the works I’ve done, I’ve ended up being at the National Media Commission once and we won. We’ve also had legal issues- the whole of last two years- the judges. You remember, we had a lot of legal issues where people talked about invasion of privacy- to be hooded and not to be hooded and in the Supreme Court we prevailed.”
To him, there’s nothing unethical about what he does although he was quick to chip in that it does not mean that people do not have the right to criticize and to feel their privacy has been invaded.
“They have the right but that is why we have the court of law. Whenever they think those rights have been trampled upon, they are always to go to court. We are always open, we will answer,” he assured.
Anas has, meanwhile, announced the release of another investigative piece which he said “will shock the entire nation.”
Deep sources at Tiger Eye Pi revealed that the new investigation is more compelling than that of the judges scandal that saw the sacking of many judges.
The new exposé will implicate top politicians and administrators in power.
The latest work of Anas Aremeyaw Anas would be made public in the second week of June.
