Journalist refuses to apologize to Justice Abban

The Editor of the Enquirer newspaper, Raymond Archer, says he will not apologise to Justice Henrietta Abban as directed by the National Media Commission.

The NMC directed Mr Archer to render the apology following a complaint filed by the Judicial Service on a story carried by the paper.

The Enquirer in June this year published a story headlined, “The Beauty Queen who Jailed Tsatsu,” referring to Justice Abban who is the presiding judge over the case involving the former GNPC boss.

The NMC says the story was disparaging and in bad taste and has directed the editor to publish the apology in two consecutive editions of the paper.

But Mr. Archer said he would not render any apology because the commission failed to give him a chance to argue his case.

“The rules of fairness requires that at least you listen to our point of view, where is even my response to that petition?”

“If we cannot say that somebody is beautiful it means we cannot say that somebody is ugly, what kind of media freedom is this?”

The former Chief Executive of the Ghana National Petroleum Authority, Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, was sentenced to five years imprisonment by Justice Abban for causing financial loss to the state.

Since then, the case has assumed the dimension of a national controversy.