Celebrated Ghanaian journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni, has pointed out the positives in the past administrations of former presidents John Adjekum Kufuor, Atta Mills and John Mahama in terms of tolerance to free speech; and called on President Akufo Addo to curve his own niche.
According to Mr. Azure, the prevailing state of press freedom in the country under President Akufo Addo is unfortunate especially having been marketed to Ghanaians as a staunch human right campaigner.
He wrote this on his facebook wall as part of his address as the main speaker during the 2020 Baah Wuredu Memorial Lecture, held under the theme “Protecting The Public Purse; The Media and Fighting Corruption in the 4th Republic of Ghana.”
Find the facebook post below.
It has been reported that very few Ghanaians today believe the media is actually free to report news without government interference.
Ghana ranked 30th in the recently released World Press Freedom Index 2020, falling seven places from 23rd position in 2018, and dropping from Africa’s No. 1 spot to third.
Amid concerns about aggression and intolerance toward the media, notable organizations as well as well meaning Ghanaians including Former President John Mahama have spoken on the development.
In his message to Ghanaians to mark this year’s World Press Freedom Day, Mr. Mahama lamented Ghana’s drop in the global ranking when it comes to press freedom; indicating that the matter should not only be a source of worry to journalists and media owners but to citizens as well; because when the freedom of the press is curtailed, democracy suffers and all other human rights that anchor a person’s dignity as a human being are eroded.
He thus called on the general public to “condemn the killing of journalists like Ahmed Suale, as well as the harassment of Manasseh Azure and Edward Adeti.”
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHZ|Paul Fordjour/Ghana
