The appeal by opposition National Democratic Congress to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to reverse what it says is the calculated onslaught on media freedom and free speech by the government is one of the leading stories in the Ghanaian press on Monday.
The Graphic reports that opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, has asked President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to reverse what it says is the calculated onslaught on media freedom and free speech by the government.
According to the NDC in a statement it released on Friday following the arrest of Kwabena Bobie Ansah of Accra FM, “the past few weeks have seen a dramatic upsurge in the criminalization of free speech as well as unbridled attack on the journalism profession.”
Police accuse Bobie of publishing false news and offensive conduct, which he denies. He has been granted GH50,000 bail following his arrest late Thursday night.
The NDC says there has been a “sharp deterioration in the expression of the right to free speech under the Presidency of a personality whose claim to fame as a human rights activist, was his work on the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law when he was an Attorney General. Recent events however, exposes duplicity and hypocrisy of Mr. Akufo Addo.
President Akufo-Addo Must end the Attack on Free Expression Now
The National Democratic Congress has observed with utter dismay, the calculated onslaught on media freedom and free speech by the Nana Akufo Addo government, which is increasingly showing dictatorial and autocratic tendencies.
The past few weeks have seen a dramatic upsurge in the criminalization of free speech as well as unbridled attack on the journalism profession.
The newspaper says that the Ghana Airport Company Limited (GACL) has told all airlines through the International Air Transport Association (IATA), that the Ghana Card will from March 1, 2022, be recognised as an international travelling identity document, otherwise called e-passport for all Ghanaian holders travelling to Ghana.
The GACL, following this week’s key ceremony at the headquarters of of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in Montreal, Canada to officially recognise the Ghana Card as a Machine Readable Travel Document (MRTD), the GCAA in an official notice to international airlines and airports, has confirmed that Ghanaians can start using their Ghanacard from 1st March, to travel to Ghana.
This directive also means that Ghanaians in the diaspora, who hitherto needed a Ghanaian passport and a visa to travel back home, will now be able to use their Ghana Card to travel back to Ghana without a visa.
The GACL’s notification asked all airports and international airlines operating to Ghana to allow holders of the Ghana Card to board flights to Ghana, following the card’s recognition by ICAO as an international Machine Readable Travel Document.
The GACL has also sent a separate notification on the new directive to the IATA Timatic Team, for publication on IATA Timatic Platform “for the general information of all concerned.”
The latest step by the GACA has paved the way for airports and airlines to start recognising the Ghana Card as an e-passport.
This directive also means that Ghanaians in the diaspora, who hitherto needed a Ghanaian passport and a visa to travel back home, will now be able to use their Ghana Card to travel back to Ghana without a visa.
The GACL’s notification asked all airports and international airlines operating to Ghana to allow holders of the Ghana Card to board flights to Ghana, following the card’s recognition by ICAO as an international Machine Readable Travel Document.
The Ghanaian Times reports that a total of 12.1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across the country as at last Friday, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said.
Out of the number, 7,971,235 AstraZeneca vaccines have been administered.
The Service has also indicated that 17,982 doses of Sputnik-V have been administered while 1,057,299 doses of Moderna vaccines have been administered across the country.
It said 2,044,329 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have been administered while 1,082,522 doses of the COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen have been administered.
The service said, 4,626,467 persons have so far been fully vaccinated out of the 20,000,859 people targeted, making up a percentage of 23.1.
The number of persons receiving “at least” one dose are 8,532,623 with a percentage of 42.7.
Ghana experienced a surge in infections and fatalities in January 2021, entering a second wave of rising infections of COVID-19. The number of daily active cases in February 2021 was as high as the peak of the first wave in June 2020. Furthermore, Ghana was also confirmed to have recorded the delta variant, which first appeared in South Africa.
Hence, government rolled out the vaccination exercise to help save lives in the country in March, 2021.
The newspaper says that the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has cautioned operators of “table-top fuel stations” to desist from the illegal practice before the law catches up with them.
According to the authority, the practice is not only illegal but a recipe for disaster. The illegal trade is said to be rife in rural communities across the country.
The Chief Executive Officer of NPA,Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, who gave the warning noted that the safety of fuel from such illegal stations cannot be guaranteed because they are mostly found to be adulterated.
He, therefore, cautioned the public to boycott such fuel stations in order not to cause damage to their vehicles
Dr Abdul-Hamid said this when he interacted with journalists in Sunyani on Friday as part of a working visit to the Bono Region, to acquaint himself with firsthand information on activities of the sector.
The authority, he said, since its establishment had made incremental progress in perfecting the regulatory regime and framework to police the industry to meet international best practices and standards.
The industry, which initially has about 20 oil marketing companies (OMCs), now had more than 200 including Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), an indication of an exponential growth in the downstream petroleum sector, he said.
Dr Abdul-Hamid said in recent past the authority had worked hard to ensure high and quality standards through the introduction of the electric cargo tracking and the automatic tank gauging systems, among other interventions.
GIK/APA