(WAJA/IFEX) – A Ghanaian journalist, Sedi Bansah, was arrested on the orders of the country’s deputy minister of defence, Tony Aidoo, on Tuesday 19 September 2000. Bansah, who works for the private biweekly “The Crusading Guide”, was investigating a story about an alleged assault by the minister on a civilian and had contacted the minister […]
(WAJA/IFEX) – A Ghanaian journalist, Sedi Bansah, was arrested on the orders of the country’s deputy minister of defence, Tony Aidoo, on Tuesday 19 September 2000.
Bansah, who works for the private biweekly “The Crusading Guide”, was investigating a story about an alleged assault by the minister on a civilian and had contacted the minister for his version of the story.
In a surprise move, the deputy minister chose to honour an arranged rendezvous at the offices of “The Crusading Guide” by arriving in the company of four military officers, who detained the reporter and sent him to the country’s police headquarters to assist the security agencies in picking up the complainant in the case.
Bansah was kept at the police headquarters for over eights hours. He was then released on bail and asked to report to the police the next day.
Both the Ghana Journalists Association and the Private Newspapers Publishers Association have condemned the arrest as unconstitutional and an affront to Ghana’s democratic process.
This is the second time this year that the military has been involved in arresting and detaining journalists, acting against Ghana’s constitution. In January, Kabral Blay-Amihere, editor of “The Independent” and president of WAJA, was arrested and detained by the military (see IFEX alerts of 9, 8, 7 and 3 February, 20 and 17 January 2000).
