Ghana

(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 […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – Alfred Ogbamey, managing editor of the “Gye Nyame Concord”, and Samuel Asamoah, a reporter for the newspaper, were prevented from covering a press conference by the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) on 4 December 2006. The press conference had been called by the GPHA in response to a teaser carried in the […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 16 November 2006 an Accra high court exonerated Western Publications Limited, publishers of the privately-owned Accra-based “Daily Guide” newspaper; its managing editor, Gina Blay; and its former deputy editor, Ebenezer Ato Sam, of libel charges brought against them by the former first lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings. The court, presided over by […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – Christopher Serlom Adzivor, Volta regional correspondent of “The Independent”, a tri-weekly Accra-based independent newspaper, was violently attacked and detained on 11 November 2006 by Lance Corporal Badu, a police officer at the Ho municipal police station. The journalist alleges that Badu ordered the inmates in the police cells to “teach him a lesson”, […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 10 November 2006, in Ada Foah, located in the Dangbe West district of Ghana’s Eastern region, some 27 journalists were heckled and mistreated by armed policemen while covering a press conference. The policemen, numbering about 13, consisted of members of a special “Buffalo Unit” in Tema, a city adjoining Accra, as well […]

(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is a 10 November 2006 ARTICLE 19 press release: Blood Diamonds: Ghana Must Embrace a Higher Standard of Openness ARTICLE 19 supports the initiative taken by the Kimberley Process members this week at their annual meeting in Botswana, to put Ghana on probation for the certification for export of illicit […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 2 November 2006, a group of journalists covering the trial of suspected drug criminals in an Accra regional court were threatened and insulted by sympathisers for taking photographs of the suspects. Florence Gbolu, of the Accra-based independent daily newspaper “The Chronicle”, told MFWA’s correspondent that the sympathisers attacked reporters when some of […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – On 19 October 2006, Emmanuel Opoku, a reporter with the “Daily Guide”, a privately-owned daily, was prevented by a group of ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) supporters from covering a press conference in the Western Region. He was accused of biased reporting. The journalist alleged that he was manhandled and insulted by the […]

(MFWA/IFEX) – Lawrence Addo Kyeremeh, a reporter for independent local radio station Happy FM, was violently attacked and detained on 26 September 2006 by five police officers at the police station in Kaneshie, a suburb of the capital, Accra. According to Kyeremeh, while two of the officers slapped him several times, two others insulted him. […]