Manasseh Azure Awuni, iInvestigative Journalist
Lead investigator for the Multimedia Group, Manasseh Azure Awuni, has come under barrage of attacks following the National Media Commission’s ruling that the D-Eye Group can’t be classified a militia group.
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, Mr. Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, has waded into the matter following the ruling by the NMC and stated that the deliberate attempt by Manasseh Azure, to disgrace the current government with his documentary has failed to match the hype he placed on it.
According to Mr. Anwti-Boasiako also known as Chairman Wontumi, the Joy FM reporter has brought disgrace to him and brought his own reputation into disrepute following the shoddy investigation he conducted.
“It was as if Manasseh Azure had something against the Akufo-Addo led government. He took things into his own hands and failed to do a diligent work. If he was ethical, he wouldn’t find himself in the shameful situation he is currently in. He has disgraced himself and no one would take him serous again. He can’t be trusted and that is a big blow to him as a journalist who was once respected”, Chairman Wontumi said.
The NMC in its ruling on the case between the Government of Ghana and the Multimedia Group clarified that D-Eye Group per the facts provided posed no security threat and had no characteristics of any known militia.
Multimedia claimed they relied on the word militia as used by respected legal luminary, Professor Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu, a member of the Commission that investigated the Ayawaso West Wuogon violence which occurred during the by-election after the death of the sitting MP, Emmanuel Kyeremateng Agyarko.
Despite conceding that it was inappropriate for the company to operate from the former seat of government and admitting that the expose was in the public’s interest, the NMC found that Multimedia Group failed to abide by the ethics of journalism with regards to their representation and description of the group.
The NMC stressed in its ruling that, “whereas it finds the presence in the Castle of D-Eye Group problematic and unacceptable, the group did not manifest any violent conduct to be described as a militia or a vigilante group from the documentary as people of Ghana have come to identify such groups.”
However, Manasseh Azure Awuni, says there is everything wrong with the NMC’s report about his documentary.
According to him, he never expected anything less from the government agency, National Media Commission(NMC).
