(MFWA/IFEX) – On 24 August 2006, Kwadwo Ababio, one of five suspected drug barons standing trial for alleged drug offences, threw to the ground and smashed the camera of Ms. Fidelia Achama, a reporter of the privately-owned daily newspaper “Daily Guide”. According to MFWA’s source, on the morning of the incident, while Ababio was being […]
(MFWA/IFEX) – On 24 August 2006, Kwadwo Ababio, one of five suspected drug barons standing trial for alleged drug offences, threw to the ground and smashed the camera of Ms. Fidelia Achama, a reporter of the privately-owned daily newspaper “Daily Guide”.
According to MFWA’s source, on the morning of the incident, while Ababio was being led into the courtroom handcuffed to another suspect, he made his way into the crowd and seized the camera of the journalist, who had already taken shots of the suspects.
The source said the suspected drug baron smashed the camera to the ground. The other suspects later stared threateningly at the reporter, after Ababio had said something to them.
The acting editor of the “Daily Guide”, Fortune Alimi, told MFWA that the police looked on unconcerned while onlookers sympathized with Achama.
Journalists in Ghana have been at the receiving end of attacks by drug barons and their sympathizers in recent times. On 17 August, Ebo Hanson, a cameraman of the state-owned newspaper “The Daily Graphic”, was slapped and punched several times. On the same day, William Yaw Owusu, a journalist of the state-owned daily “Ghanaian Times”, was also threatened and insulted by the same assailants (see IFEX alert of 18 August 2006).
MFWA is concerned about the safety of journalists as these attacks take place in the wake of a series of cocaine scandals in the country. Such attacks undermine the rights of journalists, and constitute a threat to freedom of expression and press freedom, both of which are guaranteed by Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
MFWA calls on the appropriate security agencies to provide adequate protection for journalists in the country to allow them to pursue their legitimate duties without fear or favour.
