Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin, has condemned the use of the police service by “megalomanic” politicians to enforce ethical and professional journalism through arrests.
Three journalists have suffered that fate in less than a month.
Media General’s radio and TV presenter Captain Smart was recently arrested and put in cells for alleged extortion despite being granted bail by a court of competent jurisdiction.
A few days ago, Power FM and TV XYZ, Mr Oheneba Boamah Bennie, was also jailed for 14 days in connection with some statements he made about the president and his family.
Just last week, another presenter with Accra100.5FM, Mr Kwabena Bobie Ansah, was also arrested for false publication.
Condemning the arrests at the inauguration of the Media Centre in Parliament on Friday, 18 February 2022, Mr Bagbin said for “allegations of misreporting; allegations that can be considered as misdemeanours; you proceed to arrest the person, hijack the person by the dress, got the person into cells. That belongs to yesteryears not today”.
He said people who feel aggrieved by the comments or publications of journalists have a constitutionally guaranteed right to use civil procedures to seek redress at the appropriate quarters and, so, the arrests of the police are needless.
“Those who know the writings of journalists, when it offends them, know what to do. They have recourse to the law. Those are civil matters. They are not criminal”, he noted, but clarified: “I’m not for a moment holding brief for irresponsible and unprofessional conduct of journalists”.
“I am simply saying that there is a cure in our current legal regime”, Mr Bagbin explained, noting: “The tendency on the part of the police to arrest journalists for what they describe as mistakes, is old school. It’s turning this country into the dark ages of media persecution”.
The former Nadowli-Kaleo MP also said the police cannot in any way be used to enforce ethics and professionalism in journalism practice.
“I dare say that any attempt by any politician hiding behind the police institution” to enforce ethical and professional journalism or use the law enforcement body as “the regulator of journalism practice in this country, is not only a pretender but also megalomanic”.
“The police cannot assume responsibility for responsible practice in Ghana by scanning newspapers and news and arresting journalists for errors and misrepresentations. I don’t know how our Police CID was trained that if there is an allegation made against a citizen, the first thing is to arrest that citizen. I don’t know where they got that law from”.
“We invite the citizen and the citizen would voluntarily appear before you and discuss the situation but when the citizen is refusing or failing to do so. And you have evidence that the citizen wants to escape from the ambit of the law that you can proceed and arrest the citizen,” he added.
