Until Ahmed Suale's murder is resolved, Ghana's press freedom will continue to be tainted - Franklin Cudjoe

Cudjoe says it hurts that Ahmed Suale's murderers are walking around freely

Ahmed Suale's murder is still unsolved two years on

Ghana drops 30 places in 2022 World Press Freedom Index

President of IMANI Centre for Policy and Education, Franklin Cudjoe, has bemoaned the inability of Ghana's security apparatus to bring to book the persons responsible for the murder of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale.

The IMANI president said that until the murder of the journalist who was killed in 2019 is resolved, the Government of Ghana will continue to be viewed by the international community as repressive towards the media.

"It hurts gravely that the masterminds, agitators and assassins of Ahmed Suale are still lurking about freely. Until this and other murders are resolved, our free press ranking will be bad," a tweet shared by Cudjoe on May 4, 2022, read.

Franklin Cudjoe made these comments reacting to the release of the 2022 World Press Freedom Index, which ranked Ghana at 60 out of 180 countries in the world and 9th in Africa in terms of press freedom.

Ghana's performance on the index shows that it 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.

Stakeholders in the media landscape in Ghana have described the performance as the worst in the last 17 years and have attributed the poor performance to the murder of Ahmed Hussein-Suale and the criminalisation of speech which has led to recent arrests of some media personalities in the country.

Ahmed Hussein-Suale, an associate of fellow Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, was murdered on Wednesday, January 16 2019. He was shot three times while in his vehicle, twice in the chest and once in the neck, by two unidentified men on motorbikes.

Ahmed Hussein-Suale was a member of an investigative firm called the Tiger Eye Private Investigations. This firm investigated corruption in the Ghana Football Association named Number 12, which led to the dismissal and ban of its president, Kwesi Nyantakyi. He was also part of an investigative journalism piece in collaboration with the BBC into human body parts sold for rituals in Malawi.

Watch the latest episode of The Lowdown below: