Ghana will keep performing badly in press freedom ranking until killers of Ahmed Suale are arrested – Franklin Cudjoe
“Although the country is considered a regional leader in democratic stability, journalists have experienced growing pressures in recent years. To protect their jobs and their security, they increasingly resort to self-censorship, as the government shows itself intolerant of criticism,”
Founding President of Imani Africa Mr Franklin Cudjoe has said that it hurts gravely that the masterminds, agitators and assassins of investigative journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale who was with the Tiger Eye team, are still lurking about freely.
Hussein-Suale died on Wednesday, 16 January 2019 when unidentified men on motorbikes shot him three times, twice in the chest and once in his neck in his vehicle.
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Mr Cudjoe said until this and other murders are resolved, “our free press ranking will be bad.”
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His comments follow Ghana’s abysmal performance in the recent press freedom Ranking.
Ghana has performed poorly in press freedom ranking, dropping 30 places from 2021 to rank 60th on World Press Freedom Index 2022 with a score of 67.43.
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The report cited government’s intolerance, a situation that forced journalists to engage in heavy self-censorship in the line with their work.
“Although the country is considered a regional leader in democratic stability, journalists have experienced growing pressures in recent years. To protect their jobs and their security, they increasingly resort to self-censorship, as the government shows itself intolerant of criticism,” the World Press Freedom indicated in its latest ranking released May 3,2022.
It added: “The 2019 information access law authorises journalists to demand information of national interest. However, a clause in the law allows a fee to be charged if the information requested is in a language other than English – a provision used to deny journalists’ access to the information they seek”
“In addition, one third of media outlets are owned by politicians or by people tied to the top political parties. The content they produce is largely partisan. In Ghana, most media outlets face financial problems, reflected in low salaries and poor working conditions for journalists. Frequently, new newspapers are launched only to fold in a few months, due to inability to meet production costs.
“State-owned media, for their part, benefit from government advertising contracts and payment for publishing news items. Government advertising is awarded through a non-transparent and inequitable process”.
Source: 3news.com|Ghana
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