(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Internal Affairs Minister Alhaji Malik Yakubu Alhassan, RSF protested the order to deport Liberian journalist Darryl Ambrose Nmah, working at Radio Gold, a private station in Accra. “The intensification of the war in Liberia and the repression against local journalists put Nmah’s life in danger; he has been living […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Internal Affairs Minister Alhaji Malik Yakubu Alhassan, RSF protested the order to deport Liberian journalist Darryl Ambrose Nmah, working at Radio Gold, a private station in Accra. “The intensification of the war in Liberia and the repression against local journalists put Nmah’s life in danger; he has been living in Ghana for eight years,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. The organisation asked the minister to request that the authorities concerned not deport the journalist and allow him to work freely in Ghana.
According to information collected by RSF, Nmah was arrested on 31 May 2001 by members of the Ghana Immigration Office. He was released that evening, after intervention by the station’s managing director, who was fined US$1430 (approx. 1689 euros) for having employed an illegal alien. At first, the deportation was set for 1 June, then 5 June, in order to allow Nmah time to pack his belongings. Having left his country because of the war, the journalist arrived in Ghana in April 1993. He studied political science at the University of Accra with the aid of a scholarship given by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). He hosted a controversial programme on Radio Gold about political issues called “Morning Show”. According to local journalists, this programme may be the reason for his deportation. Officially, the government reproached him for his two trips to Liberia in November 1999 and in February 2001. In Ghana, ninety-seven percent of the Liberian refugees have no official documents even though some of them have been living in the country since 1990. Last year, the UNHCR in concert with the Ghanaian government launched a campaign to regularise the status of Liberian refugees in the country, but none were issued with official documents.
