(WAJA/IFEX) – The following is a 15 June 2001 WAJA press release: PROCESS TO ELIMINATE CRIMINAL LIBEL BEGINS IN GHANA The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, has confirmed reports that the process to expunge criminal libel from the statute books has begun. The repeal of the law on seditious libel is […]
(WAJA/IFEX) – The following is a 15 June 2001 WAJA press release:
PROCESS TO ELIMINATE CRIMINAL LIBEL BEGINS IN GHANA
The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice in Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, has confirmed reports that the process to expunge criminal libel from the statute books has begun. The repeal of the law on seditious libel is part of the package.
The Bill was gazetted June 8, 2001, and going by the rules governing parliamentary practice in Ghana, it would go through its first reading after fourteen days. Two readings later, the Bill would become law.
Repeal of the law was a campaign promise of the new government in Ghana, while the then ruling government was adamant in its insistence to keep the law. Former Attorney-General Obed Asamoah even pledged not to repeal the law if his party retained power in the December 2000 elections.
The former government used the current law to harass a number of journalists in the past. In 1991, George Naykene was jailed under the Criminal and Seditious Libel laws for an article published in his newspaper The Christian Chronicle that alleged that all the members of a military junta, which included former President Jerry John Rawlings, had benefited from a loan contracted by the government of Ghana after the junta handed over power to a civilian government. Naykene spent eighteen months in prison for the article.
In 1996, three journalists were charged with seditious libel and sent to jail for two weeks when the trial judge refused them bail. The trial continued for four years until the change in government in January.
The Attorney-General led a team to the court on judgement day to file for a withdrawal of the case in February.
