Alban Bagbin commissions office for parliamentary press corps
Alban Bagbin admits journalists make errors sometimes
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has expressed anger at the affront to free speech that appears to be characterizing the work of the Ghana Police Service in recent times.
He was reacting to what he described as the Rambo style approach that has been recently adopted by the police, especially in arresting journalists while doing their work, reports adomonline.com.
A number of journalists have recently found themselves on the wrong sides of the law, with charges of false publications slapped on them, a situation that Alban Bagbin has described as retrogressive.
“There are some heinous crimes that you can also proceed to arrest. But allegations of misreporting, allegations that are considered as misdemeanors, you proceed to arrest the person, hijack the person by the trousers and lure the person into cells. That belongs to yester-years. Not today,” he said.
He rather urged that people who feel slanted by any such publications in the media should resort to the rule of law and not apply the force by the police, the report added.
Alban Bagbin made this known while speaking at the commissioning of the office of the parliamentary press corps.
He added that it is wrong for the police to resort to always arresting people at the slightest instance, stressing that there is the need for them to be more temperate in the exercise of their powers.
“Oftentimes, in our quest as journalists to disseminate the information we have in a timely manner, to beat the deadline set for us, we make some mistakes. Our information do not turn out to be entirely accurate. We end up making some representations. At times, impinging on the integrity and reputation of others.
“The police cannot assume responsibility for responsible media practice in Ghana by scanning newspapers and news portals and arresting journalists for errors and misrepresentation. I don’t know how our Police CIDs were trained. That, if there’s an allegation made by a citizen, the first thing is to arrest that citizen. I don’t know where they got that law from,” he said.
He charged the government to strengthen the National Media Commission so that it is able to adequately deal with journalists whose actions or inactions affect others negatively.
View his Timepath below:
Alban Bagbin is the Speaker of Parliament