We are eagerly waiting for the latest international media rating of Ghana giving the rather subtle return of the Criminal Libel Law.
The eagerness is because albeit we know we shall as a country drop many notches on the chart the relative level of retrogression is what is beyond our ken.
Until the rating is released however we would continue to whinge about the manner in which the three-month long government of the NDC is abusing power as it tramples upon the freedom of the media to present information to the people without fear of favour.
Time they say flies. Within this short period since the pendulum of power swung to the NDC the change on the country’s media space is amazing.
Currently some journalists and individuals have their names entered into the case books of the National Security Secretariat and the OSP for publishing what in the estimation of the agencies constitute false information.
This is how far the country has retrogressed in terms of freedom of information and expression.
When the then Attorney General Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led the charge on the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law the colonial times obnoxious statute, it was to take the country more levels in democracy.
Indeed at the time of the repeal the excitement was euphoric coming at it deed on the heels of the culture of silence. Little did we expect then that in the not distant future the country will return to the obnoxious times as we are seeing today.
The Media Foundation For West Africa (MFWA) Executive Director, Sulemana Braimah spoke well when he expressed the Foundation’s revulsion to the attempts by government to intimidate journalists in the country.
We can only add our voice and indeed those of well-meaning Ghanaians to the expression.
Being a critical bastion against bad governance and tyranny, media freedom should be safeguarded by all who cherish the development of this country.
The MFWA’s was prompted into action following the invitation by the National Security Secretariat and a subsequent three-hour interrogation of Prosper Agbenyega because of his expose on the missing ECG containers which today stands tall in terms of public attention.
The National Security Secretariat which considers the leaked documents, the basis of his story which brought the subject to the front burner as classified information has been greatly embarrassed by the leakage and its subsequent dissemination to the good people of Ghana embarrassment shared even more by government.
More leakages would occur as it seems government would continue to engage in acts of bad governance in the coming months until it runs out its antics in the power game.
Leakages of classified documents would not stop anytime soon because the media would by all means find means of unearthing the so-called restricted information.
We in the media appreciate the efforts the founding fathers of press freedom in the country put in to get us where we are today and are not ready to countenance any act of arbitrariness by any security agency of state. We shall continue to operate within the constitutionally-bestowed freedoms.
As for the National Security Secretariat let them go and learn about what constitutes media freedom and its role in a democracy within the confines of the Constitution. Perhaps after that they would cease behaving like a Hitler Gestapo.
