Media cannot be scapegoats for irresponsibility of politicians – Pratt hits back at judiciary

Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, Kwesi Pratt Junior, says the Ghanaian media will not take lightly the threats contained in a letter issued by lawyers of the Judicial Service to media houses in the country.

Speaking at a press conference organized by the Ghana Journalist Association, GJA; in Accra on Monday, Mr Pratt stressed that the attempt by the judiciary to use the media as a scapegoat for whatever anger that exists in the Ghanaian space will not be countenanced.

“It is just a veiled threat intended to cow us. We are not responsible for the anger in our society, the anger in our society has been caused by the irresponsibility of those at the helm of affairs in all departments of the nation.

“And we cannot be held responsible for the irresponsibility of our leaders. If there’s anger in the society which needs to be addressed, let us find the root of that anger and deal with it collectively as a society,” he said.

Towing the official position of the GJA, Mr Pratt earlier stated that the order by the Judicial Service’s lawyers qualified as a threat to media freedom which he said will not be relinquished in any way.

“Most of the times everybody, any institution, feels free to criticize us. To point to our incompetence, to allege that we subvert the law and so on. But they deny us the right to do same to them.

“The freedom which allows judges in this country to try and make decisions are the same freedoms which allows us to practice and the subversion of media freedom is a subversion of all people. We would not take this threat lying down. We will do our jobs as prescribed by the constitution and in the interest of the people in this country,” he stressed.

Sory at Law, the legal representative of the Judicial Service on Thursday, February 25, 2021, wrote to media houses asking them to cease publishing and cause the deletion of publications it described among other things as inciteful, hateful and incendiary against members of the Supreme Court, especially those hearing the ongoing presidential petition.