Ghana

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 24 April 2008, Joe Baidoo Ansah, Ghana’s Minister of Trade and Industry, interrupted a live-broadcast on Metropolitan Television (Metro TV), an Accra-based TV station, to register his displeasure about the inclusion of Nii Moi Thompson, an opposition spokesman, in the flagship programme “Good Evening Ghana”. Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MFWA) correspondent […]

Freedom of the Press 2007: Ghana

(MFWA/IFEX) – The crew of TV1, an Egyptian television station covering the ongoing 26th African Cup of Nations in Ghana, was on 25 January 2008 attacked by some players of the Desert Hawks, the Sudanese national team. The crew went to the hotel of the Sudanese team in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city, to preview […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – Two journalists of privately-owned Accra-based newspapers were violently attacked by armed policemen on the night of 19 January 2007. Anas Aremeyaw Anas, an investigative journalist for the “Crusading Guide”, and Halifax Ansah-Addo, reporter for the “Daily Guide”, were beaten, paraded alongside suspected criminals, and detained for about twenty minutes at the police headquarters, […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – A digital camera belonging to Fred J. A. Ibrahim, a Kumasi correspondent of the “Daily Guide”, a privately-owned Accra-based newspaper, was destroyed on 11 January 2008 by Yaw Amankwah, a photographer of Manhyia Palace, the official seat of the Asante Kingdom. A furious Amankwah insulted the journalist, seized his camera and ordered him […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – Ato Abban and Issac Nettey, camera operators with TV3 Network Limited, an independent Accra-based television broadcaster, were assaulted by police personnel on security duty at the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Special Delegates’ Congress at the University of Ghana on 22 December 2007. The Congress was in the process of electing the NPP’s […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 4 December 2007, Helen Abrokwa was reinstated as the head teacher of Padmore Street Primary School in Tema, in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. The reinstatement came 10 weeks after she was demoted and transferred, allegedly for granting an interview to the media about low enrolment levels at her school. On […]

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is an abbreviated 30 November 2007 ARTICLE 19 press release: GHANA: ARTICLE 19 launches documentary calling for greater transparency of gold mining industry For the past two years, ARTICLE 19 has been involved in the production of the documentary “When Silence is Golden”, which focuses on the impact of gold […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – MFWA adds its voice to those of concerned Ghanaian organisations in condemning the Ghana Education Service (GES) for gagging and punishing teachers who provide information concerning their work and their schools to the media and the public. On 18 September 2007 the GES, in a letter signed by the Tema Municipal Director of […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 13 September 2007, Asana Gordon, central regional correspondent of the Accra-based privately owned daily newspaper “Daily Dispatch”, was barred from covering the Central Regional Health Service awards ceremony to honour stakeholders in the health sector by Clarence Lartey, the public relations officer of the Central Regional Coordinating Council (RCC). Media Foundation for […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 31 July 2007, three men accompanying Sherry Ayittey, a functionary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Ghana’s main opposition party, forced a photographer of the “Daily Guide”, a pro-government newspaper, to remove images of Ayittey from his camera. Policemen from the Striking Force Unit of the Ghana Police Service prevented the three […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 28 April 2007, guards of President John Agyekum Kufuor prevented journalists from covering the president’s visit to Tamale, capital of Ghana’s Northern Region. Some of the journalists were roughed up and intimidated. One journalist, Edmond Gyebi, a reporter for Accra-based independent daily “The Chronicle”, told an MFWA correspondent that the intimidation and […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 3 May 2007, World Press Freedom Day, while discussing the electoral prospects of presidential candidates from the ruling party, a radio correspondent was attacked by a friend of one of those reviewed. Mahama Shaibu, the northern regional correspondent of Joy FM, an independent Accra-based radio station, was slapped and insulted by Abdul […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 26 April 2007, reporter Kojo Hayford and cameraman Lord Asante Fordjour of TV3, an independent Accra-based television station, were mistreated by Raymond Gbegoah, coordinating director of Akuapem South District Assembly in the eastern region of Ghana. Gbegoah slapped Fordjour and insulted the two journalists before chasing them out of his office. The […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 14 April 2007, Ian Motey, a correspondent of “The Ghanaian Times”, a state-owned daily newspaper, was prevented by security guards of Asante Kotoko Football Club, a Kumasi-based team, from covering their league match, for alleged biased reporting. The guards also threatened to bar all journalists of “The Ghanaian Times” from ever covering […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – Philip Katsriku, a cameraman of TV3 Network, an Accra-based independent television station, was on 29 March 2007 physically mistreated by a prison guard and sympathisers of a jailed opposition Member of Parliament for taking photographs of the MP. The prison guard, following his unsuccessful attempt to seize the journalist’s camera, pulled his shirt […]