GJA pushes for compensation for journalist for suffering multiple assaults

The President of the Ghana Journalists Association, Albert Dwumfuor, has made a strong case for President John Dramani Mahama to compensate multiple award-winning investigative and environmental journalist, Latif Iddrisu, for suffering a life-threatening assault at the hands of personnel of the Ghana Police Service in 2018, as well as a recent dastardly assault on him by some supporters of the New Patriotic Party.

The association made the appeal to the president in order to provide the journalist with financial support as he continues treatment for the head injury he suffered when some police personnel pounced on him and brutally assaulted him at the CID Headquarters in 2018.

The journalist has since been undergoing treatment and therapy in the U.S. state of California, following the life-threatening injury he suffered at the hands of the police.

'Unwarranted attacks on journalists must end' – GJA President

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Though Latif occasionally returns to frontline reporting at the slightest sign of recovery, he does so through pain and trauma.

The GJA president, in a recent meeting with Latif Iddrisu, received a detailed briefing regarding the protracted court case and progress in what has been a long road to full recovery.

It was based on that information that the GJA president made the passionate appeal to President John Mahama to consider a handsome compensation for the journalist.

"We want to appeal to you to compensate journalists who have suffered injuries in the line of duty. We have Mr Latif Iddrisu who has been assaulted twice: first by the police, and then by thugs of the NPP," Dwumfuor stated at a meeting with the president on Friday, September 5, 2025.

He, however, commended President Mahama for the interest he showed in the attack on the journalist by some NPP supporters at the EOCO Headquarters, which has since resulted in the arrest of one of the perpetrators, who is currently on trial.

"I want to commend you, Excellency, that recently, by your intervention, the perpetrators in the recent attack on Mr Latif Iddrisu were arrested, arraigned and remanded."

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Other journalists who were mentioned for consideration of compensation included JoyNews' Erastus Asare Donkor and Ohemeng Tawiah, among others.

The Ghana Journalists Association president, Albert Dwumfuor, has been very progressive with his advocacy for press freedom and the safety of journalists in Ghana.

He also used the platform to call on the government to tighten legislation against those who attack journalists, stressing that current laws are too weak to serve as a deterrent.

On his part, President John Dramani Mahama congratulated the newly elected executives of the GJA and recounted his days as a young journalist in the GBC newsroom.

The president stated his commitment to the independence and safety of media practitioners in Ghana and outlined some interventions his administration intends to roll out to improve the lot of journalists in Ghana, including the resuscitation of the Media Development Fund.

President Mahama also pledged to work closely with the media to restore Ghana’s reputation as a model of press freedom, raising concerns over the country’s steady decline in the World Press Freedom Index.

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