Ghana

(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 […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 28 February 2007, fans of Ashantigold Sporting Club, a soccer club in Obuasi, a mining town in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, attacked journalists after a league game in which the club lost to Hearts of Oak, an Accra-based team. One journalist, Buertey Shadai, a photographer for “Hearts News” bi-weekly newspaper, sustained […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – Ghana’s Inspector General of Police (IGP), Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong, assured Ghanaian journalists on 17 February 2007 that the police service would give them the necessary protection to enable them to discharge their constitutional mandate of demanding accountability from public office holders. At a press briefing in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city, Acheampong urged […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – Henry Addo, an investigative reporter of Metropolitan Television Station, an independent television station in Accra, was violently attacked by members of the vigilante “land guards” group on 17 January 2007, in the Accra suburb of Chorkor. Addo sustained various wounds to his eyes, back, head and fingers. The assailants, who numbered about 15, […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – Egbert Faibille, managing editor of “The Ghanaian Observer”, a tri-weekly, Accra-based privately-owned newspaper, has reported to security authorities that he has been the recipient of frequent death threats. Faibille said that the most recent threats came to him in the form of Short Message Service (SMS) messages to his mobile phone on 12 […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 9 February 2007, an Accra High Court ordered Militant Publications, publishers of “The Insight”, a tri-weekly independent newspaper, and its acting editor, Peter Kojo Apisawu, to pay a fine of 120 million cedis (approx. US$13,043) for defaming Ghana’s minister for water resources, works and housing, Hackman Owusu-Agyemang. The court, presided over by […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 9 February 2007, two unknown assailants shot and killed news editor, Samuel Enin, from Ash FM, a local radio station based in Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. Enin was also the Ashanti Regional chairman of the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA). Two others, Kojo Fosu, who is a driver at the […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 23 January 2007, a High Court in Accra threw out charges against Western Publications, publishers of the “Daily Guide”, a pro-government daily newspaper, its managing editor, Gina Blay, and news editor, Abdul Rahman Gomda, accused of defamation by an opposition politician, Charles Kofi Wayo. The court, presided over by Justice Iris Brown, […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 12 December 2006, the former First Lady of Ghana, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, appealed against an Accra High Court ruling that exonerated Western Publications Limited, publishers of the privately-owned “Daily Guide” newspaper, managing editor Gina Blay, and former deputy editor Ebenezer Ato Sam of defamation. According to Nana Agyeman Rawlings, the trial […]