Prime News Ghana

Ghana cited for press violations in latest Media Foundation report.

By Anny Osabutey
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Ghana has been cited in a latest Media Foundation for West Africa monitoring report for press violations in the sub-region between January to March, this year.  


The report, which covers between January to March this year, recorded 47 violations of freedom of expression rights, the highest figure recorded for both the first and second quarter last year. This is a relatively high figure compared to last year’s first and second quarter reports on similar violations.  The country recorded five incidents including 3 physical attacks, beating Benin, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.

The report categorizes the violations into killing, arrests/detentions, physical attacks, shutdowns, seizure/destruction of property and digital rights abuse. Other countries captured in the report are Nigeria and Togo, which recorded higher figures than Ghana.

The report also says other “ issues that accounted for violations during the quarter under review is the rise in student activism as evidenced by student agitations in Guinea, Togo and Sierra Leone which resulted in confrontations with the authorities. This situation is closely linked with security agents’ lack of appreciation of citizens’ rights to peaceful assembly and procession.”

Touching on the Nigerian situation, the report says a crackdown on media personnel in January this year resulted in the arrest of some journalists, including blogger, Kemi Omolulo-Olunloyo, who was arrested over an  Intagram post about a popular actress, while Jerry Edoho of the Ibom Nation newspaper was arrested and arraigned in court after he took to Facebook to seek confirmation of a reported crash of a commercial airplane belonging to Dana Air.

The foundation advised governments in the sub-region to respect the rights and freedoms of their citizens, while ensuring security agents stop violating the rights of journalists and others exercising their right to freedom of expression.

“Specifically, police and security forces must cease committing acts of physical attacks, arbitrary arrests and detentions against journalists and dissenting voices,” it adds.

The full report is here:

http://www.mfwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Freedom_Monitor-Jan-March-2017.pdf