The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has mobilised 642 people, most of them journalists, alongside some supporters of press freedom to petition Parliament to address recent attacks on journalists and the media in Ghana.
The petition, dated June 19, 2021, was triggered by the recent attack on Erastus Asare Donkor of the Multimedia Group Limited by the Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong. It referred to similar incitement by the MP against Ahmed Hussein Suale a few months before the murder of the investigative journalist in 2019.
“We consider the MP’s open call for the journalist to be beaten as deeply worrying and dangerous. This concern is premised on similar calls by Kennedy Agyapong for under-cover journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale to be attacked. As you must be aware, the journalist was killed by as yet unknown assailants a few months after the MP published his pictures and called on his supporters to attack him.”
The petition catalogued recent press freedom violations in the country including the assault on Caleb Kudah of Citi TV/FM which it said threaten to tarnish Ghana’s image as a bastion of democracy and respect for press freedom.
The MFWA and its co-petitioners, therefore, called on parliament to ensure that:
- Honourable Kennedy Agyapong is appropriately sanctioned to deter him from similar conduct in the future and to also prevent him from acting in ways that undermine the integrity of the high office of a Member of Parliament and by extension the Honourable House.
- Adequate security is provided to Erastus Asare Donkor by the Ghana Police Service.
- The officers involved in the brutal assault on Caleb Kudah, particularly Lt-Colonel Acheampong, are appropriately sanctioned.
- The Inspector-General of Police and the Attorney-General are summoned to brief the House on the status of investigations into the murder of Ahmed Suale and the status of investigations into other violations.
Kindly click here to read the petition
