The Member of Parliament for Bongo in the Upper East Region, Edward Bawa, has petitioned the National Media Commission (NMC) to sanction Multimedia Group, owners of Joy FM, for invading the privacy of ex-president John Mahama by flying a drone over his former Cantonments residence.
This is in reaction to a drone footage of the ex-President’s No 3 Prestige Link residence, posted on myjoyonline.com on January 14.
Lawyer for the MP, Dr Rainer Akumperigya, speaking to Class News said the footage was a breach of the ex-president’s privacy and, by extension, that of the nation hence the legal action.
“On the face of the complaint, it is very clear what we are seeking to do. We’ve brought the complaints under some constitutional provisions, article 18(2)(3)(5)…as well as the act that sets up the [National] Media Commission itself. It has given it jurisdiction to seek complaints from individuals. We brought the complaint or the petition on the basis of this provision. If you look at the relief we are seeking, we want the commission to [cause] Multimedia and all its allies or subsidiaries under the Multimedia Group a publication of an unqualified apology, first, to the former president of the republic as well as all Ghanaians, because if you look at the conduct of myjoyonline.com, what it seeks to do is to infringe on not just the privacy of the residence of the president but the office which he occupied as well as the infraction on the constitutional injunction on persons not to invade the privacy of Ghanaians,” he stated.
“So there are two legs that we are looking at. They did not just invade the privacy of the president but Ghanaians as a whole. The last release we are seeking is for the NMC to perpetually injunct the respondent, which is Multimedia, and its groups from flying drones or any objects of similar nature through the airspace of Ghana without permission. This is premised on the fact that we have, from our preliminary [investigations], concluded that no security permission was obtained by multimedia, myjoyonline.com or Joy FM news for that matter prior to the conduct of flying drones over the private residence of the president and invading the airspace of Ghanaians.”
Meanwhile, the Multimedia Group has denied flying a drone to capture former President Mahama packing out of his residence.
The Multimedia Group in a publication said: “It has become necessary to clear the doubts fuelled by a false rumour, first peddled on social media, that Joy News used a drone to capture former President John Mahama packing out of the controversial No. 3 Prestige Link residence at Cantonments, Accra.
“We believe the claims were utterly false, fabricated with malicious intent to cause disaffection for Joy News.
“We would like to state without equivocation that the video in question was taken in December 2016, more specifically on the 9th, as part of our election coverage.”
Source: classfmonline.com/Ghana
