#PressFreedomDay:Ghana needs to improve on press freedom despite its ranking in Africa - MFWA

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), while commending Ghana for leading other African countries in press freedom, has said that the country needs to put more effort in press freedom.

Senior Programme Officer under the Freedom of Expression programme under MFWA, Muheeb Saeed, in an interview with Akosua Manu on the special edition of Happy FM’s ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ explained that Ghana’s performance in the ranking of countries with press freedom is as a result of culminated efforts of successive Governments since Rawlings’ regime.

“In 2018, we became first in Africa and we were twenty-three in the world so we would have expected that going forward we will want to consolidate or we will push forward so that in the global level we will go forward but unfortunately since we topped Africa we have been retrogressing over the past three years. From 2019 to 2021, we have been third in Africa and 30th in the world”.

On his part, the recent ranking of Ghana in Africa is not something we should be impressed about considering that the continent needs to really improve when it comes to press freedom.

“Looking at the happenings in Africa, it doesn’t really impress me when Ghana tops the continent in press freedom because we have to be good enough to compete with those outside Africa”

Background

World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) is an annual celebration of press freedom, observed on May 3 and whose main celebration is organized by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

It serves as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics.