JJ takes on International Press

The former President Rawlings has taken a swipe at the International Press for deliberately turning a blind eye to the ills of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.

Mr Rawlings accused the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Cable News Network (CNN) and other international organizations for keeping out of what he calls the rot of the Kufuor administration because they want to portray Ghana as a model on the African Continent.

He told Journalists at his North Ridge residence after accompanying his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings to the Fast Track High Court to answer charges leveled against her and nine others for causing financial loss to the state, that the truth cannot be hidden.

?BBC, CNN, SKY were keeping away, Why? Because they did not want the world to know that Ghana under this regime has fallen far short, had failed and they needed to use Ghana?s star in terms of the legacy we have left behind, they needed to use Ghana to look like a peaceful country enjoying a beautiful culture of democracy in order to use it as a pacesetter for the rest of Africa.

You will also follow the key of multi party democracy as has been achieved beautifully in a very stable manner from President Rawlings to what?s his name, to Kufuor.

Now if they were to expose the malfeasance and the terror tactics, the massive corruption going on in this country, the rest of Africa will say, no you cannot use Ghana as an ideal pacesetter for us to follow,? he said.

Mr Rawlings called on the local media to fairly report the trial of his wife and the other officials who served under his administration.

He said if the press had given prominence to the earlier cases brought against some of his ministers, they wouldn?t have been convicted.

?I can only appeal to those of you in the media to cover it as often as you can and as accurately as you can.

Take my word for it Ladies and Gentlemen; you in the media have been giving coverage, proper coverage to some of these political trials when Mr Kwame Peprah and his colleagues were being tried.

Had you been giving it accurate reportage, I can assure you the truth would have been known by the public and they could not have inflicted on them that political sentence,? he said.

Former President Rawlings also launched attacks on the Kufuor administration saying it has failed the country and thus using the trial as cover up for its inadequacies.

?The government is feeling responsible for the tension they have created in this country, so the sigh of tactics is to rise above, the sigh of tactics is to rise above the tension by victimizing innocent people.

Go and read it. It is in the books everywhere, they call it the Machiavellian tactics, the Machiavellian tactics is when very guilty people will rather shout the most, use the state apparatus at their disposal and rather do damage to what do you call it, innocent victims,? he said.