One of Ghana’s foremost communications gurus, Professor Kwame Karikari, has called on President Nana Akufo-Addo to reinforce his position as a lifelong advocate of press freedom, and correct the prevailing situation stifling the media under his watch.
Adding his voice to the ongoing “#DefendMediaFreedom campaign,” the Dean of Communication Studies at Wisconsin University said despite critical roles the President played to advance freedom of expression in Ghana, it is unfortunate that press freedom is currently under recession during his reign.
“As an individual citizen, when I say that it is sad that [press freedom] is under recession under Akufo-Addo, I am saying this because he is a man I have always respected in this terrain – in the terrain of human rights, rule of law, in good governance and so on,” he said.
Prof Karikari, a former Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) was speaking on a Monday evening during a radio programme.
Prof Karikari recalled that President Akufo-Addo played very critical roles in press freedom in Ghana, adding “I remember that [around] 1992 or 1993, when we were struggling for press freedom, when we were working for the freedom of Kwaku Baako, Haruna Atta and others who were being incarcerated left and right, we set up an organisation called ‘Friends of Freedom of Express’ and Nana Akufo-Addo was a very active member of this advocacy organisation made up of journalists, academics and so forth.”
He said of the president: “He has also been the main proponent, as Attorney General, in the legislation to reform or repeal the criminal libel and seditious libel laws. Now as President, he has also done the remarkable job of getting the Rights to Information Law passed when all previous governments had pooh-poohed about it and had really not cared much about it.
“So I still believe that this man still believes in press freedom. He still believes in human rights both in public and in private,” he added.
His statement has come following Ghana’s dip in the recent World Press Freedom index,prompting some media practitioners to launch the “#DefendMediaFreedom” campaign to defend journalists and the media industry as a whole.
The timing of the campaign, according to Prof Karikari – who currently chairs the Board of state-run Graphic Communications Group – is baffling because his own assessment of the President’s private sentiments and his public expressions on press freedom suggests to him that the country’s leader is still a believer in press freedom.
Some 12 journalists have been attacked by security persons and party supporters since January 2018 and there have been no prosecutions.
Journalists with Multimedia, TV3 Network, Citi FM, Ghanaweb, Ghanaian Times, A1 Radio, Kotoko Express have all fallen victims to attacks.
“So under this government, if we are seeing, for instance, journalists mounting a campaign for press freedom, then we ought to sit back and reflect. But also not just sit back and reflect, call him as President to say that he shouldn’t keep silent. He must come out boldly and make a statement – reinforce the statement he’s been making all his life about these freedoms,” Professor Karikari said.
DAP/as/APA