GITMO 2: Kojo Yankson lied over Attorney General's comment - NMC

The National Media Commission has found JOY FM's Morning show host guilty of unethical reportage in a story he attributed to the Attorney General regarding the two Guantanamo Bay ex-convicts in Ghana.

Kojo Yankson had said on his show in January that the Attorney General Marietta Appiah Oppong had admitted to him that she was not consulted in the decision to bring the two former inmates to Ghana.

The AG who contested the claim petitioned the NMC over the matter.

The NMC in a statement Monday said Mr. Yankson could not substantiate his claim when he appeared before the committee that investigated the matter.

“The National Media Commission has ruled that the content of a broadcast by Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Host Mr. Kojo Yankson on January 13 2016 about two GITMO detainees was misleading to the public and not fair to Mrs. Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

“At the Commission’s Complaints Settlement Committee hearing on July 13, 2016, at which both parties—Mrs. Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong and Mr. Kojo Yankson—were present with their legal counsels, it was concluded that the interviewer, Kojo Yankson, did not adequately introduce himself to the Attorney-General Marietta Brew-Opong, and did not disclose his purpose for the interview as is consistent with ethical protocols of interviewing,” the NMC said.

Below are details of the statement by the NMC

NMC RULES ON ATTORNEY GENERAL’S COMPLAINT AGAINST JOY FM’S KOJO YANKSON

The National Media Commission has ruled that the content of a broadcast by Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Host Mr. Kojo Yankson on January 13 2016 about two GITMO detainees was misleading to the public and not fair to Mrs. Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.

At the Commission’s Complaints Settlement Committee hearing on July 13, 2016, at which both parties—Mrs. Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong and Mr. Kojo Yankson—were present with their legal counsels, it was concluded that the interviewer, Kojo Yankson, did not adequately introduce himself to the Attorney-General Marietta Brew-Opong, and did not disclose his purpose for the interview as is consistent with ethical protocols of interviewing.

At the NMC Settlement Committee hearing, Kojo Yankson could not substantiate the claim he made in the said broadcast in which he alleged that the Attorney-General was not involved in the arrangement to bring the two GITMO detainees to Ghana.

The Committee dealt with the complaint filed by Mrs. Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong against Mr. Kojo Yankson and the Multimedia Group Limited on a broadcast which she found to be untrue and calculated to mislead the public. She also found the broadcast and publication to be defamatory.

The complainant stated that she was approached by a gentleman who asked her under which laws the government of Ghana was keeping two GITMO detainees of the US government in Ghana. She maintained that the gentleman did not introduce himself to her, nor did he indicate that he was conducting an interview. She therefore directed him to speak to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, who was nearby, on the matter.

The gentleman turned out to be the host of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show who later broadcasted on radio that the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice had told him that she was not involved in the arrangements relating to how the two GITMO detainees were brought into the country.

The National Media Commission’s ruling was in exercise of the powers conferred on it under Article 167 (b) of the 1992 Constitution to “take all appropriate measures to ensure the establishment and maintenance of the highest journalistic standards in the mass media, including investigation, mediation and settlement of complaints made against or by the press or other mass media”.

ALEXANDER BANNERMAN DEPUTY EXECUTIVE SECRETARY